This race report is sponsored by Steve Cahill, who was kind enough to swap time trial start times with me so I could make the 3s race in Dominguez Hills/Compton/Carson.

 

Kam already sent a link to the times for the day, so there’s no point in recapping those. 

 

Road conditions were a bit better than last time.  Actually, they were indeed better, but it didn’t really matter too much since there was enough mud to completely thrash my bike, necessitating a laborious cleaning process, which I’m quite sick of at this point.  I can’t imagine I’m the only one who feels demoralized spending so much time engaged in bike cleaning only to see my bike relatively clean before I go for the first ride.

 

Although the road was better this time, there was some wind, unlike last time when there was none at all.  The wind ended up at least offsetting the improved road conditions. 

 

Kam’s one-word description pretty much summed it up.  This time actually felt like it hurt worse than last time.  Whereas last time, I averaged “only” 178+/- beats per minute, this time it was 187 starting from one minute before my start to the time I made it to the closest place to sit down and collapse.  I think I slowed down the last two laps.  Either the wind had kicked up more or I was fading.  Bryan VanVleet passed me out on the course.  It’s one thing to see a fast time on paper, but quite another when you see that fast time riding away from you. 

 

Once it was over, I packed up and headed up to the CBR/Somewhere in Los Angeles Criterium, which marked the first race for my Kestrel.  It was much warmer than I expected.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think of bringing sunscreen, but think I managed to escape without a sunburn.  One thing I didn’t do was drink enough water, but more of that later.

 

The 3s race was awful.  I think the most appropriate term for it would be cluster[profanity removed].  I think we averaged about 26, which sounds better than the race actually was.  In a way, it was like Red Trolley in that it was really sketchy without any crashes actually happening.  There was a lot of braking in the corners even though it was totally unnecessary.  I don’t know how many of you have done this race before (this was my second time), but it is one of the few courses I would criticize as being too wide.  It’s not quite as wide as both sides of El Camino Real, but it does seem like it was six lanes wide, or at least the equivalent if it had lanes.  There was a lot of snaking from side to side.  It also wasn’t fast enough to spread out the field, so you could move up really quickly and get swarmed just as quickly. 

 

I just sat near the back for the first half, mainly to try and get my legs loose.  I spent some time at the front trying to get a chase going, but nothing organized happened and that break was brought back in by field momentum.  I tried getting through traffic to get back up to the front for the finish, but to no avail. 

 

After the highly disappointing experience, it was time for the expected humiliation, the 30+ race.   I think a lot of good riders weren’t there because of a competing race in Santa Barbara, and more important, McClane.  It was fast, but a lot better than the 3s race since there was no braking in the corners.  Of course, it was tolerable since I was just along for the ride and didn’t think I really had much left to seriously race it. 

 

It wasn’t until into this race that I realized that I was dehydrated.  I didn’t notice because I was thirsty, but because I started cramping.  This should serve as a reminder to everyone to remember to drink, even when you don’t feel thirsty.  Although I’d had two full bottles in the pit, I only brought one on my bike since it didn’t seem necessary to have too.  That was a mistake, although it may have been to late anyway. 

 

I survived a couple of laps of cramping before I couldn’t pedal anymore.  Of course, that the final cramp happened mid lap and it only stopped hurting when I had my right leg pushing down on the pedal (without pedaling of course).  I made it back up to the pit, took down at least a water bottle, then headed back to change.  In the few minutes it took me to change, a group of six had put a big gap on the field.  The group ended up winning by about 45 seconds, though I think the lead was more at times.  One bad thing was that the places only went five deep (the field was about 120), so one of the riders missed out on the prizes.  Thurlow Rogers appeared to have finished fourth.  I don’t know who any of the other guys were.  The field appeared pretty lethargic.  It always looks easier when you’re watching.

 

That was my day.  Somehow I’m still awake in spite of being up at 4:30, racing and driving.  I’m hoping that next year, we can get a group to go up and do McClane, which is a really cool race.  Plus, it’s a NRC race, so there’s a Pro/1 race.  It’s neat to so guys who you know are way better than just being able to hold the wheel ahead of them. 

 

That’s all folks.

 

 

Joshua Zlotlow

(760) 635-3469

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