Fremont Criterium

Great fun today at the Fremont Crit. Good, fast racing with lots of action, aggression, and high tempers - just the way it should be if it's done right.

Larry and I were up against like 38 Slaveway boys for the M35s. Hervanderzoo was, shall we say, active. He would repeatedly put 11 nails in our coffin but none of his boys could figure out how to hammer in the last one. Finally Lar got away with 2 Safeways and I was fine with those odds. But gawdamn if that wasn't good enough for them, so they kept trying to make it 3 to 1. That was just too greedy so I had to grit my teeth a few times to stamp that out, but that meant that eventually it all came back together.

So we're rolling around pretty good and I'm wondering what's going to happen next and I'm hoping it doesn't involve a bunch of black jerseys up the road and two blue ones having to chase, and the next thing I know Ovanderflower is up there again gleefully riding away from us with that goddamn gerber daisy looking back, dancing and laughing at us. And that's triply humiliating, because b) it's like the 18th time he's powered away, and c) you know he's going to play all modest and coy and specifically not mention his superhero exploits on his flog even though he's got legions of fans begging him to. It's like the judo of bragging.

So Larry's cramping from the 14 races he did all morning and I'm blechh and what do we do now? and all of a sudden this guy comes along and gets it in his head to ride hard. Now, Brian Bosch is no mere spark plug. He's a blown 427 bored 30 over with three deuces, tuned headers and glasspaks. And nitrous, as I found out later. Bosch evidently decides to take pity on me and Lar and help us out in the good fight. He sits on the front and starts winding it up. We're still 8 laps out and I'm wondering how long he's going to last because he starts out in the high 20s and it's hurting me a little to sit second wheel and there are 50 eager beavers sitting on me. And I don't want to get left out here to die when he finishes. But the dude just doesn't slow down. We start creeping up on the break and things aren't looking so bad after all. The lap cards flip, the gap keeps shrinking, and death is in the air.

As we catch I'm trying to figure out how to manage the impending swarm when Bosch blows, but that just doesn't happen. He keeps going. Larry comes up with 2 to go and gives him a breather, and with 600m to go peels off and Bosch once again takes point and accelerates. I'm stuck to him like glue, fixated on his cogset in disbelief as his chain drops kerchunk from the 13 to the 12, then no not again kerchunk to the 11. And he's pulling away from me. I have to repeat this: After 7 laps of full-blown chase and about 30 seconds rest, he accelerates! I'm having trouble staying on his wheel as we pour into the last turn. Gaps are opening all over the place behind me. None of us have done a stitch of work in the last 15 minutes and yet we can do nothing but observe, admire, and respect the Bosch. I pathetically stand up to try to pass him at 75m to go because that's what I'm supposed to be able to do but this day is his.

Notes:
There were some heated words spoken during and after the race about if there's a right way to disrupt a chase, etc. My .02 is that anybody can use whatever legal tactics they want to in a race. It's a free world. But if you've mounted a steady, hard chase for whatever reason and it hurts a lot and somebody starts messing with you it's not going to make you very happy. So if you use such tactics don't be shocked if you invite a little wrath. For what it's worth, pro teams almost NEVER use blocking tactics, and if they do, they are almost always passive (sitting on, rolling through gently, etc). In U.S. crits... sometimes you'll see it. But only when a chase is disorganized. Once another team assembles a chase, everybody else backs off and lets them do their jobs.

There are gray areas to these things. It comes down to a matter of respect. Respect for another's efforts, respect for tactics, respect for every one of the other 60 guys who are out there trying to enjoy an hour of good clean fun the same way you are.