Team BEER

Devin is now affectionately referred to as Devin Destroyer after his accomplishments over the past two weekends. The first podium spot came during the Modesto race weekend when Devin went off the front with 2 to go, and made his attack stick. He was able to use the 6 tight turns on the course to his advantage and stay away for two laps and cruise into the finish line for a win.

This last weekend Devin was able to repeat such a feat in the Cat 4 race. Always staying near the front placed Devin in great striking position. At 2 to go, the “move” was unleashed. On a horse shoe type course, it’s a bit harder to make a move like this stick. But again Devin turned it out for another impressive win.

My #1 goal for this race was try out my new trick and see how it works against the home town crowd. The race was a pretty uneventful. The pace felt harder and there were more attacks, and because of the wide open course, staying in the top 10 required a little more work. One thing I did do is think about when and where to launch my attack, and were I need to be in the pack. I figured that I would need to be in the top 5 coming into the finish line stretch, and then swing to the right. So when the laps started counting down I focused on staying in the top 5 or so. That was working out except somehow I end up on the front at 3 to go. This was not were wanted to be, but I was there so I kept the pace at about 25 or so and tried not spend too much energy. Once we rounded the corner I sat up swung to the right and feigned like I was pulling off the front to move back into the pack. Once I could see the pack starting pull through, I put my head down and started grabbing gears. I was able to get away, the gap didn’t seem very big but I kept on pushing anyways. At 1 to go I looked back some where at the beginning of the sweeper and could not see anybody so I knew I had got a good gap. By the time I got to the end of the sweeper the pack was closing in on me pretty quickly so I knew I had to really dig to pull this one off. I gave it my all and it was enough to seal the deal. It was much harder to pull it of this time but that and doing in front of the home town crowd made it all that much sweeter.

The day was finalized with a secondary race in the Master 3/4 race. This time in the White Jersey on the left side of the screen.

M30+3/4:
My goal for this race was pretty simple. Go with flow and try and exploit any opportunities that came up. Pretty much from the get go the pace was pretty hard. I seemed like almost every lap we would be doing around 30 on the back stretch. There was a constant barrage of attacks, and a lot of chasing. I tried to bridge once and ended up pulling the group with me so I shut it down. There was a fair amount of hard pulls and attempts to form breaks but lucky for me since I don’t think I had the legs to chase or help chase a break down, none of them worked. About halfway through the race my objective changed to just trying to finish, since the relentless pace didn’t seem to be letting up. My garmin recorded a max speed of 34.7 somewhere around the middle of the race. My guess it hat is around the time I was really feeling it. Luckily the pace let up a little towards the end. I even took a few hard (for me) pulls. Once the laps started counting down I figured I still had some legs left so I worked on staying near the front. On the last lap I was in a decent position and I knew that if I wanted to have a chance at the sprint I would need to be on the inside line coming out of the last corner. I got in the gutter and surprisingly was able to move up fairly easily. A spot opened up coming into the corner so I moved into it. Once we turned the corner it was on, so I put my head down and started sprinting. I was able to grab 3rd. I’m almost more stoked on this then the E4 win since that is the best I’ve done in a field sprint in a crit and felt like I could have done better if I had a little better positioning.

Needless to say it was a pretty awesome day of racing for me. I won enough to cover my fees, a post race burrito, and still have a little left over. And to top it all of I got enough points to upgrade now! It was good to see everybody that came out today, and as always awesome to have people there rooting for me.

The Bicycle Business just got their shipment of limited edition water bottles. Get down there and score some ballertypeshit.

Sunny Sacramento, CA is fortunate enough to have a 32 mile bike trail that roams the lands from Old Sacramento Folsom. Many people enjoy using this pathway for recreation riding, commuting, breathing some fresh air, and even training for events. Most people tend to follow basic etiquettes. This list includes but is not limited to, riding on the right hand side of the road, passing on the left, stopping off of the trail, asking if it is ok to “sit in” and follow, saying thanks for the pull…but not all know these nuances. That is okay as long as accidents are avoided.

People that are new to road cycling sometimes find the bike trail as a place to “race” other riders. Typically this occurs after someone has been riding for a few months and they can ride fast enough to feel like they are going “fast”. The feeling of “fast” probably equates to a land speed of 20mph or greater. More often than not noobs rolling in the 20~22 mph zone begin to “race” other riders.

The feeling of riding “fast” is a bit intoxicating when starting out. All of a sudden your ride that was great exercise takes on a new form. It’s hard to hear your iPod due to the sudden rush of air entering your ear canals. Your breathing is bit labored. Your endorphins start kicking in. It feels awesome and you want to continue to ride “fast”. Then the legs burn, the lungs sting, and its over quick. It is during this time period though when people riding “fast” might pass someone and then feel tempted to “race” them. Obviously you passed them because of your speed, and maybe they will want to try their luck against your newly found skill of riding “fast”. If two people are at the same riding ability, then the “race” might be on.

A real race is typically concluded with multiple racers sprinting for the finish line. These finishes are exciting as well as dangerous. But, nonetheless people line up week after week in search of glory. On the American River Bike trail there are no races, only “races.” The winner is usually the person who was not dropped in some kind of acceleration. There is no consideration of how long people have been riding that day, what their goal is, how old they are. If two people are riding “fast” and they are “racing” then the one that got dropped at some random point lost. It happens all the time.

Now there is a new tactic on the bike trail. The sprint pass. The sprint pass occurs when someone catches another rider while traveling at 17~19mph. Rather than simply go around the slower rider the faster traveling rider executes a sprint pass.

Yesterday I was the victim of a sprint pass that turned out to be a poorly executed sprint pass. It worked like this. Riding along admiring the surrounding, content to cruise at 17mph, I was caught by another rider. The rider sat on my wheel for while. Maybe he noticed that I was busy admiring butterflies and such and not drilling it on a straight section and decided it was time for him to go “fast”.

He swung out to the far left side of the bike trail with a classic serpentine move, so that I would have difficulty getting on his wheel, and then took 3 gears. In that fluid motion he dropped the hammer and punched it up to 23mph with his girlfriend in tow.

I had never experienced such a move on the bike trail. Sometimes I pass people, and sometimes I get passed, but the tactics used by this “racer” showed me something I had never seen before. I wanted to see how far this would go. So, I revved my 42×17 little harder to keep up. The attack lasted for 30 seconds and then it was over. Not only was the attack over, but the guy blew himself up. His girlfriend went to the front and sheltered him from the wind, but it was no use. He was done. I continued the pace and passed them without sprinting.

A few miles went by without interruption, so I figured it would be a good time to work on the beat box skills. Halfway through my personal performance, I heard talking behind me, and the late crunching of leaves that only indicate that someone is following. The shadows showed two bodies tailing. The beat box show was over, and then it happened again. They “sprint passed” me. They could have easily just rolled on by, and the beat box performance could have continued uninterrupted. But the literally “sprint passed.” The race was once again on. We came to a fork in the road, stay on the paved portion or short cut across the dirt. I chose dirt, and they chose paved. I never saw them again, but I would have been ready to counter their sprint pass on a third chance.

Had they just passed me normally, there would have been no temptation to “race” them. If you want to truly race, got to a sanctioned event, pay your money, pin on a number, and give it your best. If you are on the bike trail, enjoy the ride and leave the tactics for another day. Sheesh!