July 16 - Watsonville Criterium
Race website & results

Mens 35/45+ report by Dennis Pedersen, Team Santa Cruz

This seemed like a cool event to race, so I mailed my pre-registration forms and check to Velo Promo since the field limit was only 50 riders. Teammates Matt Wocasek and Larry Morin had mentioned their intention of racing too, and I told them I'd pre-registered for the 35+ 4/5 race. David Gill promptly corrected me by pointing out that there was no such category at that race, so I just had to assume things would be cleared up on race day.

Speaking of David, he had some dire, Nostradamian warnings to impart to us:

"Make no mistake about this: there is no 'Master 35+ 4/5' race at Watsonville. There is an open 'Master 35/45+' race, in which you will be spat out the back in short order if you are not warmed up.

"I found out the hard way and was one of the casualties of previous Open Masters races at Watsonville. Come to think of it, I've also been a casualty of the regular Category 4 race at Watsonville.

"Bottom line: get a good warmup!"

Shudder; I was scared after that!

On race day my wife said she was willing to go with me, and since the first race didn't start until 12:00, we went out to breakfast and I had banana pancakes. We then rushed home so I could at least clean my chain and get everything ready. Barely made it on time! At registration I changed my race from 35/45+ to Category 5, hurriedly got ready, and just had time to ride a couple of laps before they assembled us for the start. It turned out Larry couldn't make it, Matt wasn't there, but Philip Sims was.

The weather was partly cloudy, and it was a perfect 68 to 70 degrees. Downtown (uptown?) Watsonville has some nice old houses, and this neighborhood was a great venue for the course. The course was actually very cool, my favorite so far! It had a bit of a climb up to the finish line, but nothing like The Wall at Cat's Hill, with a total of four right turns and two slight rights, and one hard left plus a slight left up the hill (the start was at the last right turn, then up the hill). The only downside was that there were some minor bumps, and a drainage that crossed the course in that hard left turn.

At the start line we were told there were about 25 entrants (including a guy on a hardtail mountain bike with knobby tires!). And we were off! My wife had positioned herself at the base of the hill, and could watch us there, then take a short stroll a few steps behind her to watch the left turn on the next block. Very spectator friendly, and a great spot for the pit area since you could access it from two points along the course. It was great hearing her cheer me on, and I even managed to smile and wave to her.

The pace was hard for the first lap or two, but nothing crazy, and we settled down nicely into a sustainable fast pace. I vowed to stay up front the entire race to avoid the yoyo effect from the many turns and the hill. I also kept an eye out for prime sprints and the lap cards. I heard the bell and announcement for the prime sprint after a few laps, and since I was up front and feeling strong I decided to give it a try. As we neared the last turn I moved up and to the outside of the turn. My friend Chris told me that's the way to go because you can maintain your speed better out there, room permitting and as long as there are no crashes. I started pedalling before the turn, heard some guys calling attention to me, and pounded on the pedals as I exited the turn. Wheeeee! But I started to fade a little as we hit the climb (I'm not a strong sprinter), and a guy sneaked by me on the right to grab the sprint. But I think I was second anyway, which was pretty cool!

After the sprint I had some momentum going into the downhill, and just kept pushing with the result that I pulled the peloton for almost two laps, riding the perfect race line through the turns (thanks to my car-racing skills). After that the sprint winner took over and told me to "hop on" or something to that effect. I think he must have felt we could form a breakaway group as the peloton was pretty leisurely. That didn't happen, as they were able to hang on for the most part, though we soon started to lap stragglers from off the back, including the mountain-biker.

As we neared the final laps I set up for the sprint as best I could, as the pace did pick up some. I saw that Philip was right behind me, but he fell back a few spots on the last lap. In that last turn I was in a good position, maybe fourth or so, but as I exited the turn I was passed by a few guys and couldn't answer. Well, I thought I couldn't until another guy rode up from behind me and I somehow dug deeper and moved slowly ahead of him again to maintain my spot. I counted six guys ahead of me after the finish line, but it turned out some of them were lapped (so why were they getting in the way of the sprint???). Instead I finished fifth, as David (who was officiating) told me, and Philip got eighth. Awesome! I think the guy who won was the same guy who won the prime sprint. It's always good to keep an eye on those guys. We ended up with about 31 minutes and 17 laps.

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