Folks that know me for more than…oh…30 seconds….know I abhor the rain. I like it even less when I have to ride in it. This year has been a very loooooong year for us who train in northern cali for rain reasons. Still for some reason I seem to race very well in the rain; probably 50% of the podiums I have had, have come from rain-soaked races.
I decided that i would brave the tempest this past Saturday and head out to Land Park in Sacramento to race the Pro,1,2, and the Masters 35+ 1,2,3 categories. Normally racing a Criterium in the rain is about the dumbest idea on the planet. But given that I seem to ride those well (and that fewer people will come out to them in the rain…I schemed) I drove out for the races in a driving wind and rain.

Masters 35+ 1,2,3 = Outside of racing the Pro group, this is the fastest category of racing period. Lots of semi-retired pros in their 30′s and 40′s all beating on each other to avenge old rivalries and live out something after their Golden years (of racing that is). We started with around 50 riders to my surprise. So much for my thoughts to dominate a crit of seven riders. Gun goes off and away we go, fast from the start as expected.

I have been extremely angry with myself for missing all the winning breaks the last several important races I have done. I was in NO WAY going to miss any break today. Lots of attacks and I went with all of them. About halfway through the race, I attacked and was joined by two other guys, Josh from Clifbar and Mat from Lombardi (I think it was lombardi). Pretty soon Jesse Moore of CalGaint bridged up to us and we had four. For those who don’t know Jesse, he is the Pro from Cal Giant who last year dominated all of Cali racing thoroughly. At the Folsom Omnium last year Jesse entered both the masters and the Pro categories and proceeded to win both Time Trials on the first day! He then came back the next day to race both crits to hold onto his overall lead. The Sunday of the last day for the stage race, Jesse entered a Hill Climb race in Fremont Won it in a course record, and then drove out to Folsom to race the last stages of the Omnium! He is a stud by any standards.

So the four of us drove it hard in the hard driving rain (hah!) Jesse and I took long hard pulls, Josh and Mat sat on, not able to do more than get off the front when we were done with our pull. I tried to rally them by yelling at them to pull longer…duh right. While Jesse was yelling at the to pull shorter and just get out of our way. Ha ha they must have been confused and tired. Going into the last four laps we had a large lead and knew we weren’t going to get caught. Jesse and I pulled longer and Josh and Mat still rested up for the sprint. Last lap comes and I tell Jesse “no games mate” he understands and we continue to lead the foursome. I often talk about moments of beauty in our sport. Another moment that I reflect a lot on then came about. In the last half of the last lap, Jesse comes out of rotation and rides up to take my wheel. Josh and Mat were very willing to give it over to him, I guess thinking he was going to lead them out. Well Jesse knows that he was not going to win this sprint from the other three of us. Knowing this, he had decided that he was only going to allow me to cross first if he could have anything to say about it. I had pulled the last half of the lap and was entering the final 300 meters. I knew I was going to be forced to lead it out by this point giving all the advantages to the three behind me. But that is what happens when you commit to riding in a break to at least go for the win.

We hit the final corner 300 meters to go and I glance back. Jesse has let a small gap open up between me and him…! I accelerate and glance backward again quickly. This time the gap is two bike lengths and I see him actually nod his head at me in a silent gesture of “go for it man!”. I attack all out. Tired I put my head down and pummelled into the head wind approaching the finish. What Jesse was doing is called “gapping off” he was letting a gap grow between us so that the two riders behind him were forced to burn matches and come around him into the open wind to try and get back to terms with me. It worked. I held them off to the line. Afterword, Jesse calmly approached and congratulated me and said he was glad I spotted what he was doing. Neither he nor I thought it was proper that the two who worked least should get the win. He helped me win and keep them from the top spot. Selfless and tactically asstute. It also is further fascinating that I have never met Jesse in person before this time. This was the unspoken “teamwork” that you can find when the sport is in its more beautiful moments. I am very proud of this win for that reason more than anything else. i will return the favor to him.

Pro 1,2 = This race was stupid fast! and it has a very subtle or not so subtle lesson I want to share. It wasn’t an eventful race by and large, but here is the lesson it is one of in-race karma I think. We had 50 + riders, but there was only one team with five riders – Clifbar. Webcore had three riders and a few other teams had two. Basically this meant that it was Clifbar and Webcore’s race to control.

The gun goes off and wham away goes the 1st Clifbar attack. We reel that in, and wham there goes the other Clifbar counter. We reel that one back in. This could go on for 10-15 minutes. then finally as predicted and large break of 8-9 riders goes free with one Clifbar rider and one Webcore rider. By everyones opinion at the time, I’m sure we would have all said this break was gone and going to win it. Well Jesse and I had missed it from covering the other moves. He and I as well as a few Davis riders get on the front and do our own TTT to bring it back. At best we are just limiting the time they are gaining but they are almost out of sight.

Each time Jesse or I would pull for 30-45 seconds we’d rotate off only to find the remaining Clifbar riders and Webcore riders right behind us. This is called passive blocking and is kinda bad form in a race. If a group is not working together and bridge attempts are being made, then of course they should be there and cover these moves. But once a group is working together to pull back their teammates in the break, it is considered bad form to muddy up the efforts. If we were recieving a paycheck and this was our job, they could very well be costing us a future contract back slowing us down and making us look bad etc.. anyhow no bueno but it does happen and i must admit i have even done it at times. There was a bit of yelling and hollering at Rand Miller of Webcore as well as the Clifbar riders who were gumming things up on the front group. They finally let us rotate cleanly on the front and lo and behold, we started pulling back the break! With about five laps remaining the break was in sight and we were going to get them back for sure.

When this happens in a race, it is common for a counter attack to go the moment the break is reeled and and people catch their breath. With five guys in the race, Clifbar would surely be the one countering. Well somehow they missed that memo. The break got reeled in and wham away goes Webcore! Three laps to go and another guy joins the Webcore rider. All of the sudden the Clifbar team in a panic goes to the front and chases frantically, but they are not getting anywhere and the peloton is NOT going to help them out and just sits on their wheels…payback is a beaatch huh?

The Webcore rider stays away to win it. Brian Larson (not sure the team) gets second and Rand Miller of Webcore gets 3rd. The highest place Clifbar rider was …..wait for it….12th! I was 16th without sprinting.

Here is the karma part. There is no way in God’s green earth that a break away of 8-9 riders should have gotten reeled back in…period! Come to find out that a few riders in the break had been attacking each other for Premes.. Ya know the little mid race prizes. Well when you attack your own break, then no one wants to work with you and the break will fall apart in the end. Guess what rider was the person attacking in the break…yup the Clifbar rider!

Summary:
1 – When you have numbers, use them wisely and establish a break +10 points well done
2- Mess with the chasers trying to do their job and bring back the break -5 points for a poor plan.
3- When in the break away, attack your break mates for premes -5 million points for being a selfish dumbass and causing the break to be caught.
4- miss the counter attack completely for some unknown reason even though you have numerical superiority -50 points
5- Fail to use numerical superiority to chase the 2 person counter attack down before the finish -30 points.
6- Fail to place a rider in even the top ten -100 points
total – negative lots points and lots of bad morale and karma.

Moral of the story. Always work in a break as one unit, for the WIN and use your team mates and numbers to press the advantage and make others have to burn matches!

Thanks for reading.

- Jonathan Lee

The Red Peloton made the spring cover of “Pulse” magazine, published quarterly by Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa. The photo was taken during our annual training camp held this year at the end of January. Big thanks to Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa for supporting our team!

Congratulations to the following Red Peloton members on their performance at this year’s Madera Stage Race:

Jennifer Gott, Wms Cat 3 = 6th in TT, 2nd in crit, 20 in Road Race, finished 5th overall
Jonathan Lee, 35+ 1,2,3 – 4th in TT, 21 in crit, 10 in RR = finished 9th overall
Nick Kersmarki, Cat 3 – 14th in TT, 44 in crit, 22 in RR = finished 9th overall
Kashy Ghazzagh, Cat 3 – 65 in TT, 47 in crit, 36 in RR = finished 40 overall
Dan Boyle, Cat 3 – 38 in TT, 1st in crit, 43 in RR = finished 44th overall

Below is a race report on the women’s cat 3 race from Women’s Elite Team member Jennifer Gott:

CRITERIUM
Upon arrival I was so happy to see Soda (Christine Sodaro) as she was one of my only lifelines to this new West Coast crowd I was racing with. After a big hug Soda quickly informed me that there would be a Cat 3 only race and there were a few girls from Metromint that were amazing time trialists Therefore their team would be fighting for a slow race to save those amazing tt’s legs for the afternoon race – I was very nervous for some reason entering the race and soon found there was nothing to worry about – the pace of the race was as expected slow and steady – I chatted a bit with my new friend Rusty in which I had parked next to and raced with at the Folsom Crit a few weeks earlier and with her bubbly personality and kind heart she became and instant friend – there were a few attacks but nothing got away – I was in the back of the pack for most of the race thinking to myself – I was told by my coach not to be in the back and here I am in the back – what should I do about this…. How should I move up efficiently and quietly – took me the whole race to figure this out – usually I don’t have such a problem with positioning but today I couldn’t fathom getting to the front – as I was daydreaming about moving to the front of the pack I noticed we had only one lap to go SO I started moving to the front – flying into the final backstretch I have to thank Nina for making me practice sprints sprints sprints and I powered up and charged from the outside to nip 2nd place – I was shocked as the field seems disinterested in sprinting and just kinda rolled through the line – making me feel not so superwoman about what I thought was an amazing sprint to the finish and 2nd place – yay!

TIME TRIAL
Warmed up just as Nina had assigned on my trainer with my new bee friends – apparently the bees love the almond trees and more specifically they love the Red Peloton kit as it resembles an almond tree so accurately in their eyes- so with my bee friends close by I ate and drank following coaches orders and arrived 5 mins ahead of tt take off time – I didn’t stress about the start as Nina told me that I should go out strong but not super crazy hard – I settled in and was not to look at my HR until 3 mins in – after 3 minutes I looked to see that my heart rate was at 186 – a little high for what Nina had specifically told me – so I relaxed trying not to give up speed and power but my heart rate would not drop – I took in a lot of deep breaths and tried to calm myself again without losing power and speed BUT my heart rate wasn’t effected – throughout all this I felt fine – my legs were strong and my breathing hard but not out of control so i just decided that 186-191 would be fine for the first 7 miles – I didn’t notice any mile markers as I was extremely focused on pulling in as many girls as I could – I overcame 3 girls by the time I hit the 3 miles left sign – again focused on power form staying aero and HR – between mile 7 to 9 my heart rate went up a bit to 195 – still felt fine and thought this was odd as I knew my body should be breaking down soon due to a very high heart rate – I thought maybe back off on my gearing a bit but I continued to ride mid cassette in the big ring – last mile pushed as hard as i could and it felt like FOREVER – HR maxing out at 199 – stayed strong and was wheezing when I crossed the finish line – I thought it was a phenomenal tt and was surprised to find that it was a disappointing tt time and that I had come in 6th overall – ok need to work on maybe not blowing up on my tt – UGH!!!

ROAD RACE
Again really nervous – also really missed my east coast teammates and our routine and encouragement before the race – the weather was a bit dreary and cold and I just wanted to sit down and cry – BUT I came to race so let’s get the show on the road – start time was delayed by 15 mins but what can we do so we waited and then off we went – I had NO warm up before hand which was stupid – I don’t know what I was thinking – time just got away from me – I was in a cloud before the race and was lucky to drop my extra wheels with the chase car – first lap was slow and steady – the rough patch of pavement was the worst I had ever ever ever ridden on in my life – my head was about to explode and my arms were about to fall off after all the bouncing and shaking – it was dreadful and I couldn’t believe we had to stay upright – Nina had specifically told me to ride up front where I could see where I was going to anticipate any pot holes or shall I say all the pot holes – there were SO MANY it was ridiculous -again started the race with little confidence and I sat at the back which meant during the first lap I landed right into a pot hole and my whole bike felt like it broke in half – the girl next to me yelled out “wow that didn’t sound good” – as I continued to pedal it occurred to me that my bike was getting slower and slower even though I was pedaling harder and harder – I looked down to check both my tires and both were fine – no flats but it felt like I had a flat – something was definitely wrong – let me just say that this is a brand new bike – day 3 of riding it ever – it is more expensive than anything I own right now and I am convinced I just broke my brand new bike – I am in shock and in my inexperience and panic I continued another few minutes to ignore my bike failure and try to hold onto the peloton for dear life – common sense kicked in and I stopped my bike to check to see what was going on – the wheel car also stopped and the two of us fiddled with the bike and realized the brakes were slammed closed in back and we opened both the front and back quick release levers and that seemed to do the trick – unbelievable – the wheel guy Justin was amazing – HE looked me in the eyes and said YOU are strong YOU can catch them – go go go – and with his confidence in me I started my 20 minute time trial to chase down the peloton – I have never been alone or dropped in a race so this was so foreign to me – my mind was going crazy – you can do it my mind said; ride hard it would tell me one minute the next it would yell – give up you will never catch them – they have 30 plus riders and its just you and by the time you reach them you will be so exhausted you will not be able to do anything except hold on for dear life – then my other self would scream you can do it – go go go you can see them close the gap – crazy head games – then I started coming up on other victims of fatigue, flats and bumps in the road – I would yell as I went past – jump on my wheel we can work together – no one responded and I wasn’t about to wait for anyone either – by this time I was possessed – I had not trained for months to be giving up on a mechanical – so I rode my little heart out and YES!!! I caught the pack in the feed zone – perfect timing – lap 2 was full of attacks in which I was forced to jump with – a few were a bit painful but nothing stuck and I rode as conservatively as possible – I did soon realize that the little tt I had on the first lap really warmed me up as I forgot to do that before the race – after eating and drinking through the end of lap 2 and well into lap 3 I felt really strong and ready to go – a few girls talked up a plan in which I only got the tail end of and missed the jump – I watched them hold a 50 foot lead on the peloton for awhile but knew they were not going anywhere anytime soon – I played in the front deciding if I should slow the peloton or bridge the gap – no one wanted to work to catch the girls and i was suppose to be in the break so I made a jump myself and bridged up to the break to help work – we didn’t stay away for long as the peleton decided after I left that maybe they should catch us – i was incredibly relieved to be entering lap 4 not due to fatigue but due to the fact that I was so happy to be entering the mine field of pot holes for the last time – again there were attacks but nothing significant – i spent most of the lap trying to figure out how to get myself out of this mess of a peleton and into a break to try and make time on 1st and 2nd place – my thoughts built up into confusion and disappointment as I was afraid to break by myself and I just needed a few teammates – we entered the last of the rollers approaching the finish line – I felt really strong but was not smart about my positioning – I ended up mid-pack going into the final hill – thinking I could out sprint the front of the pack and not wanting to grab a wheel inside I took an outside line that quickly ran out and closed up – girls cut me off causing me to be forced off the road into the grass – i thought i was going down but amazingly I abruptly stopped my bike upright in the grass – i blinked and realized I was alive but the race was done and I was not at the finish line – I told myself get back on your bike and finish – but I looked down at my chain and it was so tangled I didn’t know where to start – in desperation i just started yanking and pulling on the chain trying to get it back on but there was no hope it was far too tangled – i started to tear up and all I could think of was I just rode almost 70 miles it can’t possibly end like this – no no no!!!! – then a little voice in my head said you need to finish the race – pick up your bike and run across that finish line – you need to finish for it to count or you will get a big fat DNF on your GC and heaven forbid i get that – so I did just that grabbed my bike and ran across the finish line – as I ran across i tearfully looked at the officials and asked “does it count if I run across the finish line?” they nodded their heads yes and said absolutely and i just burst into tears out of disappointment and relief – then I pulled myself together because as we all know this is cycling and there is no crying in cycling – right?! I was surprised to find out that despite my off-roading I ended up 5th in the GC – what a blessing that was – so what an adventure – my first California stage race – amongst the almond trees, bees, pot holes and cowboys! Wow! I’m happy to be alive!

Congratulations to Matt Abbott on his performance in all three events at this year’s Merco Cycling Classic. Even more impressive – he raced without teammates in the Elite Men’s 3 category. Here is his recap of the race…

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I’ve always loved this early season race series; it’s usually been the launching pad for my race season. I went into this series knowing that I was not at peak race fitness and shouldn’t expect anything but a good workout and a tune up for the rest of the season. This year it consisted of a 12 mile ITT, a 28 mile, (36 lap) crit, and a 72 mile road race.

INDIVIDUAL TIME TRIAL
The TT was a bit tense because I hadn’t done it before and didn’t know what to expect, (the race flier and GPS profile only do so much for info gathering). It was an out and back course (6/6), the profile of which can be found here…

As usual I started first out of the gate for my category and as my luck would have it, my computer decided to not hold its charge and die; I was flying blind and went by feel. The entire ride felt like it was up hill both ways, except the last couple of miles out to the turn around point and the last 2k to the finish. I just barely made top ten and finished 9th for a time of 28:23, (1:39 behind 1st place).

Matt riding to his 9th place finish in the ITT during Merco

CRITERIUM
After looking at the course for the crit I really didn’t expect much, it had always been super fast but this year they were forced to change the course due to downtown road construction.

The sprint down the straight away heading toward a 180 turn and a sprint back toward the finish line didn’t suit my legs at the time, but I hung on and finished with the pack in 26th place.

ROAD RACE
The road race was the surprise of the weekend. It started raining as I made my way to the start line, knowing I had 72 miles of this to suck up, I didn’t have a warm fuzzy feeling about making my around this course.

As the race went on, the rain just kept coming, everything was pretty mellow until the last lap when everyone who still had the will was jockeying for position. I played it smart and conserved my energy. My positioning was perfect until the last kilometer of the race; I got push next to the right edge of the road and was boxed in preventing me from following the wheel I had chosen. Things heated up for the sprint and I was able to break free but not in time to catch the lead train. I finished 14th out of 88 in a cold wet race. Not bad in my book.

Race report by Matt Abbott