Hey Masters... Every now and then you have things go very right! As you can see from the recent RaceReports... We the DBC Masters had a great weekend. At Dunnigan... JHall taking 2nd in the 35+ 4/5's, and Chris winning the 45+ 4/5's, and well, what can you say about the MetroMint Giro. Pictures like this don't come along that often. It was a tough feeling to describe...
.
(Below is JHalls Race Report).
.
Metromint Giro di San Francisco Criterium Category 4/5 Masters 35+Justin Hall Finishing position: 1/75 (registered) Teammates: Jason Snovel, Fred Schnaars, Karl Wurzbach, Rod Fernandez, Darin Salk, Robin Rolles. Course description: 24 laps of a very rough 6 turn ¾ mile circuit mostly flat but with a 2 block short stinger on the back side of the course.
.
"Stick on my wheel, I will lead you out and if you can come around then do it", (or something to that effect) said Karl to Jason and I as we were warming up on the trainers. Karl, already having enough points to upgrade to cat3, was graciously offering to help Jason and I achieve the same goal. A short time later we roll to the line "only" having 6 DBC riders in this race, we don’t really listen to the pre-race instructions, and we are off. The pace is somewhat blistering right off the bat, which of course leads to a crash in the very first turn (typical). We hammer around, push up the hill, and generally regroup on the back section.
.
I had previously told Jason and Karl I would hang toward the back with the plan to work up toward the end, but in my very limited crit racing experience, I have never been comfortable doing this, mostly because I got caught out doing this at the Sierra Nevada Crit in Rancho – I prefer to be more toward the front. So to some extent I broke ranks from the plan and tried to ride in the top 15, much like on July 4. After a couple laps the preems start, a strong rider from Third Pillar jumps, I see Fred go after him, along with a couple other riders. They stay out for a couple laps with Fred even staying out longer solo. I was trying to disrupt a bit for Fred but quickly realized this was pointless so I resumed just sitting in. We brought back and passed a slowing Fred, he yells "race smart Justin", I figured he was pulling out of the race understandably tired from his great result at Dunnigan on top of the solo effort – more on this later.
.
With about 18 or so to go, the pace picked up again on another preem lap. I didn’t get this preem, nor did I even try for it, but I was toward the front on pace in the draft of those who did contest it. These guys sat up after start finish, but I just kind of kept going using my momentum through the left hander and the two right handers all of a sudden I had a gap! Glancing back, nobody seemed to care so I mashed up the stinger and went hard down the back straight and all of a sudden I was told I had 10 seconds. Hmmm…..this is new, what do I do now? HTFU baby, I drill it!!! I figure I can corner faster than the peleton, so I am really trying to be efficient carrying maximum speed at the apexes using all the course to carry speed then none of the course a to reduce distance traveled per lap. Its working. 15 seconds. 20 seconds. Okay, I am deep into the pain cave now. I "think" I got two solo preems but frankly I was too tired and focused to be sure of this till after the race (yes, confirmed, nice prizes), nor frankly did I care. The barometer of my growing fatigue is on the stinger, I was previously getting up this hill at a fairly high level of perceived exertion at around 500-600 watts. Now I am STRUGGLING up at the same level of perceived exertion putting out 250 watts – use the gears Shimano gave you damnit!!! 15 seconds. 10 seconds. I seem to remember the numbers going up earlier, this doesn’t seem right…..this isn’t going to stick. YOU IDIOT!!!! You came here for points and you came away with preems. Nice effort, and hardly following the "race smart Justin" guidance received earlier.
.
I rested a second before being absorbed, not really sure of what is next. I’m on a big emotional roller coaster here. Jason and Karl cruise by and I hear "Come on Justin, lets go". LOL, whatever……screw you guys….. did you happen to see how stupid I was for the last 6 or 7 laps? But somehow, the one sentence motivated me, I dug down, stood up, and caught on. At this point we only had 10 to go, and the boys had already started to move up. I wasn’t sure where I was going to find the strength to get back to the front and have anything left at the end, but it’s too long a drive and I got up too early to just quit, so lets go. I start moving up, stealing wheels, picking people off in corners, and using momentum on the back side finding lots of opportunities to pass around the outside of the last two corners. With about 4 to go, I am back up at the front with Karl and Jason, which is good timing because the pace is really pickingup.
.
Fast forward to the last lap, we have Karl, Jason, and I in really good position down the back straight, going fairly fast but still a bit of cat and mouse going on amongst the group. Out of the corner of my eye I pick up a move on the inside, I jump on it immediately and am STUNNDED to see that its Fred!!!! Part of me is trying to process this as I thought he pulled out, most of me doesn’t really care because I felt like that might be the winning move and I wanted to be a part of it. Fred and I round the last two corners leading on to the finishing straight 1-2, with me on his wheel. As I mentioned earlier, I learned a lot about the course on my solo effort and I really knew the line through those last two turns – as a result I think I was able to carry a bit more momentum through there because as we came on to the main straight I came along side Fred a bit earlier than I wanted to. My legs were absolutely on FIRE, but Fred and I continued our drag race and somehow I was able to get Fred by the slightest of margins at the line for the win!!! I don’t think either of us had our "a" sprint but it was a fair fight given we both burnt matches on our solo efforts……. it gets even better, as you can see in the attached photo (credit: Dave McAnaney) DBC swept 4 of the 5 podium spots with Karl p3 and Jason p5. I’d like to give a shout out in thanks to those who gave a shout out for me: While I had totally tuned out the race announcer, I think I heard every "come on Justin" from Janice, AJ, Jane, and a few people down the front straight who I have no idea who you were – but I heard you during the solo effort, so thank you. Jason, Fred, Karl, great help and motivation during the race. I love the swarm of DBC orange at the line…..
.
Thanks for reading, JHall
No comments:
Post a Comment