Sea Otter Road Race 15-16

  The SRAM Road race took place on the property of Fort Ord. We started out with a neutral section of 4.5 miles to enter on the 8.5 mile loop. The loop had a 300 ft climb at the start, then rolling hills for about 7 miles and ended with a descent. We had to complete 5 laps and then ride 2 miles uphill to the finish.

  When we got to the climb on the first loop, one guy attacked and set a hard pace to the top of the hill. The field stayed together and on the rolling hills section, more attacks came. I stayed behind David and Marcus who chased down the attacks.

When we had finished one lap, more people began to attack on the climb. I attacked too, and got away but I was caught at the top of the climb. However when the field caught me there were only 8-10 guys left.

 We started riding really fast on the rolling hills and Yuma from San Jose Bike Club and Andrew Lanier got away on one of the hills and started working together. Meantime, in the pack the only Team Swift was chasing while I sat behind their wheel resting. 

With a little less than four laps to go, I broke away on the feed hill. I did not need any water so I moved to the opposite side of the feed and kept going at a fast pace. When I got to the top I was about seven bike lengths ahead of the pack.

  I decided to leave them behind and try to get to Andrew and Yuma. I caught them before we had to descend down the hill. We started working together and we were gaining on the field and on some sections the field couldn't see us at all and I remembered what Marcus said to me at the start of the race, ''Out of sight, out of mind.''   

 

On the next climb Yuma went hard and I followed him and we dropped Andrew. Then I worked with Yuma for the rest of the lap. With two laps to go, Yuma made a mistake on the descent and went too wide and ended up in the dirt. I passed him and broke away. I rode the last two laps by myself and won the race. 

Three things were very important in the race: my team mates helped me and blocked for me, I attacked at the right moment, and my super light and stiff Specialized Tarmac SL made the climbing very easy.

 

15-16 Copperopolis

We did 2 laps and had 6 of us from Specialized. We planned for Alistair to attack on the first climb. He did but didn't get away and continued trying. This was great because it split the group and after the climb, we had a 7 man break. In the break was: Alistair, Andrew, me, Torrey (davis), a Whole Athlete rider, Yuma (San Jose), Bjorn (AC). We worked well together through the end of the lap. On the next climb Torrey and Whole Athlete attacked on the climb. Andrew and Yuma were dropped. I almost was dropped and had to work hard to stay with them over the top. We worked well together through the flats. On the last two rollers Alistair didn't attack but went hard up them wearing them out which told me who was still strong. On the last climb Whole Athlete attacked. Bjorn and I worked hard to stay with them but couldn't. They looked around at the top and I caught back up. We went down the hill and near the bottom looked around again. I was looking back and saw Bjorn speeding down the hill and pass us but we were 1.5km from the finish and I wasn't worried but everyone else got scared and chased. We caught him with 1km to go. I got on Torrey's wheel and waited for 150 m. He went with 250 m and I followed him. He beat me and I finished 2nd.

What helped:

I got tested at Standford 2 weeks ago and knew my T2. I made sure I was under my threshold during the flats.

The bike was stiff through all the bumps and I could pedal through them.