March 10 - Tri-Flow Menlo Park Grand Prix
Race info

Results

Pictures:
Sheri Greenspan, sheri greenspan at sbc global dot net
Garrett Lau, Easton/Specialized/Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club
Ken Conley, Spare Cycles
Nenita Rozzi, Colavita/Sutter Home NorCal Cycling Team
MJ Miranda, goodnessmedia

Report: by Dennis Pedersen, Santa Cruz County Cycling Club

Report by Dennis Pedersen, Santa Cruz County Cycling Club

DATE: March 10


Bicycle racing sure can be confusing, and criteriums especially so. I'm still not exactly sure what went down in my open 45+ criterium race, but stuff definitely went down!

For example, this was one of the harder races I've done, yet it was just a pancake-flat, four-corner crit course. Should be easy, easier than the mountain bike races I've been doing, but right from the start the pace was furious. I've been in road races with many of these champion veterans, and suffered... but a crit?

Well, I did see some warning signs while I waited for my 2:00 start time: Several of the riders had the rainbow stripes of a World Champion, or the stars and stripes bands of a U.S. National Champion on their jersey sleeves, and the strong teams of Morgan-Stanley/AMD, Webcor/Alto Velo and others were very well represented. It's no wonder I was soon gasping and wheezing! Don't let the small potbellies fool you either: the slight weight penalty is of no significance on such a flat course. But I still feel like John Cleese in Monty Python's "The Holy Grail" describing the killer rabbit with the huge fangs.

One of these crusty veterans was Mark Rodamaker, who was my instructor at the Hellyer Park Velodrome. He won his world title on the track doing sprints and very generously pretended to remember me.

I'm still not sure why I didn't just register for the Elite 4 race, or the 35+ 4/5 race. That would have been easier, like last year, and my friend Erik Ostly was racing that one. The friendly company would have been welcome. Instead I watched him race while the vultures assembled for mine. Rob Evans was there too, after getting 2nd place in Elite 3, and we discussed my unpalatable prospects.

We all sprinted off at full speed at the start, and very soon were spread out in a loooong single file row. Yeah, that's a sure sign we were all suffering and looking for what little shelter we could find behind whoever was ahead of us. As nearly as I could tell, what happened was that about seven riders, including riders from both Alto Velo and Morgan-Stanley, started a breakaway group on the very first lap... amazing!

Since I was pretty far back in the long peloton I didn't see this break form. But later on the pace slowed a tad, people started chasing them down (including me; when you're alone out there you have no choice but to chase), and I finally caught sight of them... 18 seconds ahead according to a helpful spectator. I took several turns pulling the chase group and suffered accordingly, lungs wheezing and legs burning. I never allowed myself to blow up, but every time I sat up and looked over my shoulder for somebody to take over for me, the pace would slow way down until the embarassment of possibly getting lapped by the break prompted somebody to shoot ahead.

At one point I thought we'd caught the break, but, typical in this confusing race, I was wrong. What really happened was that a prime sprint split up the break and the faster half stayed away for the rest of the race. I did spot this surviving group but thought they might be dropped racers. Confusing.

Anyway. I kept track of the lap counter and the elapsed time, so I was ready on the last lap. I moved ahead to about tenth place as we entered the last turn. I saw that there was a big gap on the inside, so I took a very quick look over my right shoulder and shot ahead onto the long final straight.

This was new territory for me: a clear shot at the finish line! But experienced veterans know that's not ideal as it placed me right out front in the wind. I was hoping somebody would pass me and offer a wheel to follow, but as I held back I only saw a solid row of riders to my left. I was forced to keep up and, of course, instead became the lead-out man for several guys who'd drafted me!

Oh well; this race was my first crit of the year and helped get me back into the game... without crashing! And I was proud of my efforts against all of those champs. My training had paid off, and I felt ready for the Land Park Criterium the next week.

This text is a spacer to fix a browser compatibility issue with netscape and safari. This text is a spacer to fix a browser compatibility issue with netscape and safari.