SuperPrestige Round 1 went better than expected. I mean, at Interbike I was on my feet for much of the day, and not riding at all. We had these bar stools that were like torture devices...sure you're sitting down, but they tilted your ass forward in such a manner that you had to use the footbar at the base to hold yourself up in the stool. So your legs are loaded up, even when you're sitting. Flippin' dandy. I get back to the room and my legs were a little sore, and that's not a good thing. Add to that a week of stress, shaking hands and all that, and I felt close to sick on Saturday afternoon when I got back, and for Sunday's race I expected two things: a mediocre ride, and the complete onset of a cold afterwards.
Instead, I got two entirely different things: My best Pilarcitos/SuperPrestige finish yet, and my hardest crash in a while.
I warmed up well and felt pretty good, but I gotta say I fricking hate the Candlestick Point course. It's windy, flat, and treacherous. There are several tricky sections involving deep silt and sand, and fast. gravel-coated corners. And there's really only one good line on the whole course. Drift off that line and you'll lose speed, crash your balls off, or both.
When the official called the B's to the line, I happened to be standing on the line already, so I got a great starting position. The start is always critical, but on this course (when ran in this direction) it's especially so. After a short sprint on the pavement, you hit a hard right hander and then a quick left onto the dirt. From there, like I said before, there's really only one fast line for quite a while.
The gun goes off and I'm second into the first corner. I hit the dirt and the guy in front of me is already spinning two gears higher than me. I don't know what's going on behind me, but I suspect crashes, bad lines, yelling and general pandimonium as 60 B's riders all bottleneck onto a narrow, slippery and bumpy dirt section.
I ride the whole first lap hard, watching the guy ahead just ride away. But nobody's catching me, either. Some dude on the sideline yells "upgrade" to us. Through the start/finish line and I'm still not looking back, but I have a little gap it appears. I'm running 2nd. A few more laps fall and nothing changes. It's too good to be true. Am I this strong?
I get the 4 laps to go card. Can I hold this for another four laps? I don't know. Some guy catches me on the pavement and sits on my wheel. I make him pull, and then on the dirt he misses a corner and disappears. I'm starting to fade a little, and I'm getting nervous because the chasers are not that far behind now. I see them on the tight overlapping corners. I come into the most unpleasant section of the course and botch my remount, smashing my nuts, missing my pedals and bogging down in sand. Some dude named Nick catches up to me and urges that we keep rolling "cause they're gaining on us". And off we go. I let him pull, and he enters the barrier section with one foot too many still clipped into a pedal, and goes down in a heap. I pass him and keep charging to the 3 to go sign.
At two to go a cat 2 roadie kid named Max (and self proclaimed sandbagger) catches and attacks me on the flat section, bringing Nick along with him. I keep them in sight...Max isn't a great bike handler and maybe he'll crash or something, or I can reel them in on the last lap. I don't know.
One lap left and I'm 4th. I head into the first two dirt corners and go down hard in the second off-camber right. It was like I hit ice or something. I hit my head hard enough to ding my helmet. It takes a few seconds to gather my senses and some guy passes me shortly thereafter. Shaken but still assembled I finished 5th.
Top 5 out of 55 or 60 riders at Pilarcitos SuperPrestige. Not bad, not bad. Especially with Interbike factoring. Among the riders finishing well behind me are the Sacramento crew of Jim, Eric, Ryan and Jordi, and just two places behind me is Robert Mau, and the whole Ritchey LaPierre team. It's a ride I'm proud of, but I can't help but feel that 2nd place was there for me, but I just couldn't keep it together. But now, my season goals already met, my SuperPrestige overall points campaign suddenly very intriguing and my overall confidence soaring, I can attack the rest of the season with a newfound ferocity.
Instead, I got two entirely different things: My best Pilarcitos/SuperPrestige finish yet, and my hardest crash in a while.
I warmed up well and felt pretty good, but I gotta say I fricking hate the Candlestick Point course. It's windy, flat, and treacherous. There are several tricky sections involving deep silt and sand, and fast. gravel-coated corners. And there's really only one good line on the whole course. Drift off that line and you'll lose speed, crash your balls off, or both.
When the official called the B's to the line, I happened to be standing on the line already, so I got a great starting position. The start is always critical, but on this course (when ran in this direction) it's especially so. After a short sprint on the pavement, you hit a hard right hander and then a quick left onto the dirt. From there, like I said before, there's really only one fast line for quite a while.
The gun goes off and I'm second into the first corner. I hit the dirt and the guy in front of me is already spinning two gears higher than me. I don't know what's going on behind me, but I suspect crashes, bad lines, yelling and general pandimonium as 60 B's riders all bottleneck onto a narrow, slippery and bumpy dirt section.
I ride the whole first lap hard, watching the guy ahead just ride away. But nobody's catching me, either. Some dude on the sideline yells "upgrade" to us. Through the start/finish line and I'm still not looking back, but I have a little gap it appears. I'm running 2nd. A few more laps fall and nothing changes. It's too good to be true. Am I this strong?
I get the 4 laps to go card. Can I hold this for another four laps? I don't know. Some guy catches me on the pavement and sits on my wheel. I make him pull, and then on the dirt he misses a corner and disappears. I'm starting to fade a little, and I'm getting nervous because the chasers are not that far behind now. I see them on the tight overlapping corners. I come into the most unpleasant section of the course and botch my remount, smashing my nuts, missing my pedals and bogging down in sand. Some dude named Nick catches up to me and urges that we keep rolling "cause they're gaining on us". And off we go. I let him pull, and he enters the barrier section with one foot too many still clipped into a pedal, and goes down in a heap. I pass him and keep charging to the 3 to go sign.
At two to go a cat 2 roadie kid named Max (and self proclaimed sandbagger) catches and attacks me on the flat section, bringing Nick along with him. I keep them in sight...Max isn't a great bike handler and maybe he'll crash or something, or I can reel them in on the last lap. I don't know.
One lap left and I'm 4th. I head into the first two dirt corners and go down hard in the second off-camber right. It was like I hit ice or something. I hit my head hard enough to ding my helmet. It takes a few seconds to gather my senses and some guy passes me shortly thereafter. Shaken but still assembled I finished 5th.
Top 5 out of 55 or 60 riders at Pilarcitos SuperPrestige. Not bad, not bad. Especially with Interbike factoring. Among the riders finishing well behind me are the Sacramento crew of Jim, Eric, Ryan and Jordi, and just two places behind me is Robert Mau, and the whole Ritchey LaPierre team. It's a ride I'm proud of, but I can't help but feel that 2nd place was there for me, but I just couldn't keep it together. But now, my season goals already met, my SuperPrestige overall points campaign suddenly very intriguing and my overall confidence soaring, I can attack the rest of the season with a newfound ferocity.
posted by the seamus at 10:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home