8th & 11th Places – Sierra Nevada Criterium

Race Report:Team Bicycles Plus/Sierra Nevada Criterium

February 11, 2012, Folsom, CA

Category: 45+ 1/2/3

45 starters

D-shaped .8 mile flat criterium

Overcast, drizzle, turning to sun

IC3 Racers: Ron Callison, Ted Toribio

Bicycle Plus / Sierra Nevada had 15 riders (of 45 total)

Placings: Ron 8^th, Ted 11^th

Had plans for the weekend with family in Folsom and Grass Valley, so of course fitting in a race on the drive up seemed like the perfect plan. Arrived early hoping to get a slot in the 3/4 race, but it was still full.  Found Ted and chatted briefly.  Unfortunately Ted and I didn’t get to talk through a race plan as I had family arrive before the race which required bike-race-watching-orientation.   Weather looked sketchy to start as a heavy drizzle started to come down during our warm up; however, by the start the course was dry.

I was a bit disappointed at the way I raced at Warnerville – more negative than aggressive – so my hope for this race was to be aggressive about getting into a break and if that didn’t happen help Ted be near the front for the final turn and sprint.

Lap 1 started with flyers by both Jess Raphael and Melcher – both chased down – and a scary encounter with wayward geese on the course.  On lap 2, a Bicycle Plus (BP) rider countered the earlier moves with Fairbanks from Morgan Stanley in tow, a local SGW rider followed with another BP rider in tow.  I attacked at that point and brought a third BP rider to the group. With that we had our break of 6 with 3 BP, IC3, MS and SGW only two laps into the race. We quickly had 10-15 seconds on the field.   We continued to work fairly well together with BP taking some long pulls.  A Safeway rider, Orourke, bridged a few laps into the break. We eventually lost one of the BP riders and then with 2 to go Albrecht, Lange Twins, and another BP rider bridged after a 5+ lap chase.  That made us 8 at 2 to go.  And with 2 to go here was my tactical error:

I felt great. Legs were good. My pulls had been short. Since I don’t have an overwhelming sprint, I figured I had to be number 1,2 or 3 going into the final turn to make the podium. So on the last lap, I moved to the back of the group expecting to follow the inevitable attack on the back side before the final turn. (8 is too many for this strategy)  Instead of somebody attacking out of the group and me picking up their wheel, the Bicycle Plus team drills it from the front.  Now I am 8^th and full-gas just to stay on heading for the final turn.  No chance to move up.  That was all she wrote.  8^th out of a 8 man break.  Disappointing for sure but a good refresher course in end of race tactics.  Ted was super strong in the sprint and took second in the field sprint by a hair to Gee.

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