Cal Aggie Race Report

I've decided to do a race report on the Cal Aggie Criterium.  I'm going to start up race reports now that the season's beginning.  This weekend was the Cal Aggie Crit, which typically kicks off the NCNCA racing season. As it turns out, it's our team's fundraiser race which is sweet because everyone who came out to race on Saturday helped towards our team.  Thanks everyone! It was killer weather this weekend too, so that was awesome.

As for these race reports, I might as well put in a word to mention that I am no expert in bike racing, and I'm just telling it how I see it.  My race, my opinions, observations and what not.  The reports are meant to be something to reflect on, laugh about and maybe check out some photos if I post any.  Also for the folks at home who want to keep up with my racing and feel like they're still a part of my season even if they can't see the race in person.  

On Saturday I enjoyed hanging out with the team, volunteering and what not.  When the time rolled around, I did the pre-race rituals. Number pinning, trainer business, all that.  I warmed up with H-D watching the race before us. I felt terrible on the trainer, but that's the point.

Ashley and I, with my James Franco look. 

The family, happy to see me in race in the UCD kit. Thanks for the continual support!

As for the race itself, a lot of people showed up! It was a 1-2-3 field, so that may have bulked up the numbers. Things started well, nothing too fancy.  I think everyone got the feel of cornering in a crit down again, the speeds started picking up and the real racing began after the first 10 laps or so.  I noticed a series of big holes/dips on the right side of the road on the back straight away of the course.  Those were worth avoiding!  I managed to get into position (top 20) with roughly ten laps or so to go, starting to cover anything that was starting to form.  No breaks stuck, in fact nothing stuck.  I was ready if anything was to happen.  With nine to go, I noticed the lap cards and realized I needed to save a little for the last couple laps, I didn't want to lose many spots now since I was already in good positioning.

Photo Cred: Ken Lyon

Last couple laps, the Cal Giant team rolled up and I noticed people getting into place, including Sam (now on Cal Giant) who I know since I live with him.  Anyways, there he was and I figured hey this is a good wheel to be on. At that point I figured as long as I stay on his wheel I could try to come around him in the pack sprint and Jeff would be happy since before the race he told me my job was to beat Sam and Joe. I didn't really expect Sam to WIN it, but hey that works too!

Last lap I followed Sam (good choice) since by the looks of the P/1/2/3 GoPro vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rXUSb09blbo) posted by someone it was a real mess fighting for position on the back stretch before the last turn.  Sure enough, I stuck to his wheel after watching him fight for his team mate's wheel with some McGuire rider.  We came through the turns smoothly and I got to watch the leading out happen, it was pretty sweet to see it all unfold.  All the sudden when Sam jumped, he was gone. I had a face full of wind and I moved over behind some other guy sprinting for 3rd. I was pretty far back considering there were guys on the left side further up the road.  I bike threw and with my momentum I got them at the line. So, the lesson is, even if you're a terrible sprinter, bike throw! That was the difference of 3rd and 5th place.  I'll take third, and it was pretty awesome to watch my house mate Sam pull off the win.  He was so far up the road that he was already celebrating before any of us were close to the finish line.

(The good old bike throw. See dad, I didn't get fifth! I almost got fifth..)

And here's Sam's win.

So much for Rand Miller winning that race! Race Predictor Fail..  Maybe that's because Rand's attempted break away with five laps to go didn't stick. They had me at 14th, but what do they know.  They don't know that I'm living with Sam and I knew who's wheel to get on!  So take that race predictor.  I think it's another thing for cyclists to geek out about, just like Strava. haha.

All in all, it was a good weekend and I'm glad to be out there racing.  And boy I sure have enjoyed this fine weather! Nice racing everyone, and congrats to Sam for the win.


Good luck next weekend for those racing!
I'll be at Paskenta since I've decided to stick with the Chico tradition of ripping my legs off and blowing up my wheels on the gravel section since that's the fun thing to do before watching the Super Bowl.

Rainy Monday (Update)

This week started with rain, though I think it's all done with for a while.  As it turned out, we didn't get much rain up until last week when a storm rolled in giving everyone a change of pace.  I'm sure all the snowboarders and skiers were pleased to see the rain and snow fall. As a friend of mine on Facebook put it, "These rain drops are the tears of thousands of snowboarders finally coming together."  As for cycling, I enjoyed NO rain for as long as it lasted.  I got in plenty of riding, and I think any cyclist will agree that being cold is way better than wet and cold.  At least you can layer up and dress appropriately, but when it rains it's wet which means the ride will be miserable no matter what and all you can do is endure it. No matter how nice your rain jacket is, or your "waterproof" booties are, you will end up wet.

The forecast for last weekend.

Fortunately the rain is already gone, which means tomorrow's race ride will not be as miserable.
This week is off to a decent start. I actually understood what was going on in my statistics class, since we were talking about the gaussian function, which is "normal distribution".  Basically the bell curved shape graph when you're looking at data. Well, as it turns out there's a table that gives you ALL the values you could possibly want for any given area corresponding to a point on the graph.  That was review from my previous statistics class, so it's nice to remember something and not feel overwhelmed with information. Plus, we've got a test on Friday.

This weekend was a good weekend, I went to a leadership training camp for Young Life at Woodleaf.  The camp is less than an hour from Oroville, just up the hill in Challenge. It snowed at Woodleaf again, that was really awesome to see! I was able to stop by home after the camp and hangout with Ashley and visit the family. Even though there was a lot of driving involved (to and from Woodleaf, to and from Davis), it was worth it.  Plus, I like driving my car. I enjoy driving, but when it's raining and dark that is not a good combo. (Not to mention everyone drives ~15 mph below the speed limit which made all that driving time even longer..)

My ride on Saturday, riding to Strawberry Valley

Snow at Woodleaf, right before we left. Made for a nice view!

Young Life was a great experience this weekend. It was nice to see friends from different areas all showing up at the Mission Community Weekend.  Even Marinda was there! They are starting a Young Life in Paradise, which is cool since she was the one who told me about UCD YL. I enjoyed the seminars, learning how to be a leader for Wyldlife, which is the middle school version of Young Life (which is aimed at high schoolers).  Believe it or not, in a couple weeks we will start doing contact work and start going to the middle school here in Davis and try to start a club.  I have been waiting to see all this develop, since this Fall I participated in all the Leadership training meetings that Jen put on at Annette's house.  I think it's good that we're starting with the middle schoolers since we hope that they will continue into Young Life when they are in high school, assuming that we will grow as a club and be able to handle kids at both the middle school and the high school.  Currently I am the only consistent male leader in our area, though we do have Ian who I hope can help as a leader in the future.  We need more people, but what we have is a start.  It was exciting this weekend to see how Davis YL was a part of all the areas that are part of this ministry.  Young Life is going somewhere, things are happening and it's exciting to be a part of that. 

My goals for the week include: Train according to the plan, study lots for school, go to class, stay focused and when Saturday rolls around I am going to help with the Cal Aggie race as well as race P12. I've won there before in the lower categories, and this year I hope to do well knowing that a P12 field looks like (having raced a whole year now as Elite 2).  I am also excited to have my family and girlfriend Ashley visit Sac and watch me race! I'll be representing UC Davis on Saturday, it'll be the first time racing in a non-green kit.  It's great too because Chico Corsa comes out strong to the Cal Aggie, so I can't wait to see team mates this weekend. 

Alright, well it's time for dinner, the highlight of my day. I think I'll make some kind of seasoned chicken with a side of veggies, with either pasta or rice. (Pasta's easier to cook).  

UCD Team Training Camp

This weekend the team got together in Bodega Bay for some nice riding. Team training camp was a success, consisting of eating, riding all day, eating and lounging around till bed time. We got our team kits just a few days before camp, so everyone was able to rock them (if they decided to.. it seems some people insist on NOT representing UC Davis, being that guy who's repping his other team).  I managed to nick my kit up on the first ride, crashing everyone out on a fast wet slippery corner.
To clarify, the crash was bound to happen in my opinion, because we were coming in way too hot, it was a shady wet corner that was not banked at all. Since we were all braking hastily, my back tire came out from under me and before I knew it I slid a ways till I stopped. I got up and watched everyone else topple like dominoes. Not a sight I wanted to see.. Some of us made it out better than others, but all in all we made it out and continued the day aside from Judd who needed a new wheel.  (Sorry Judd)

       
The rest of the ride was legit, the views were awesome and I enjoyed getting some serious mileage in with the team. Camp seems to be the first time the team feels like a team. Everyone is together, we sleep together, eat together, ride together and all that.  I stayed in the barracks, and I am glad I made that choice. I do not need to spend more time in isolation, and I am not better than my team mates. I am glad that I got the chance to bold with everyone in the barracks.  Sure, it smells like fart (deadly), but the humor and talk that goes on while waiting for dinner and bed time is worth it. Constant laughter, it's pretty amusing. Don't count on getting any sleeping in early, or doing anything productive.  After a long hard ride, no one feels like doing anything, however no matter how tired people are they ALWAYS find the energy to whip out their laptop to upload their Garmin data on Strava.  It's quite amusing. One by one, people's results pop up. You hear someone rejoicing as they get the KOM on some segment, then realizing that the "big boys" haven't uploaded their data yet. Then the cursing when they realize that they got beat by a second or two.  Anyways, Strava kills the dead time, spending hours looking up segments, routes and stalking other people (Byron is the king of that. We wake up and every morning he reads his Strava update telling us who did what yesterday).  Speaking of Byron (or Brian or Barren), that kid is quite the character. He bunked above me, putting up with him all weekend has been eventful.  Quite the character, and Byron, if you're reading this (since you said you read my blogs), then this is a shout out to you...

On Hwy 1

As for the rest of the weekend, that's about it. Barracks life, lots of hills and resting up looking at Strava and cracking jokes.

I should mention that Sam was destroying every climb in sight, along side Jenkins (and Mach and Moore).  As for me, I'm riding with the rest of the folks tomorrow for a nice and easy "coffee ride" before we pack up and head back to flat, windy Davis. I hear it's supposed to rain this week, which reminds me, we had some killer weather here in Bodega Bay this weekend! Clear skies, highs of ~70's and what not. Good stuff!

One last thing! Today we did "Old Caz", or the "Ass Coach Ride", which was legit. The dirt road descending Old Caz was super sweet. Everyone decided to do it today, good for them.. But the ride itself was wicked. I had a blast, it was a nice way to mix up the riding.

Me at the top of Old Caz

Chris HD crossing Old Caz creek. (A lot of people should be getting brake pads this year)

Good riding and team bonding this weekend. I'm glad to be on the UC Davis Cycling Team. It's going to be a good season.