Fontana National Race Report

My race weekend started off pretty busy.  I decided to drive up to Fontana Saturday morning to pre-ride the course.  I got a couple of laps in and then I had to jam back home to head over to the ADT Velodrome in Carson for my first track race experience.  Track racing is such a different exeperience and I'm looking forward to hitting the track more often.  There's plenty to learn about the track.  Overall, my first experience went well.  No mishaps and a decent overall result.

I was hoping not to burn out my legs too much at the track.  Lots of full effort sprints at the track takes a toll.  I still needed to be fresh for the Sunday Fontana XC race.  My legs felt a little fatigued the morning of, but they quickly felt better after a nice 20 minute warmup.  The weather was looking great, the wind completely died out for Sunday.  Saturday had gale force Santa Ana winds blowing dust and dirt everywhere which is never fun to race in.

On to the race start.  Thankfully, the pace didn't seem to be blistering fast this time.  The pack stayed together up until the big National Hill climb.  I kind of got stuck towards the back of the pack which didn't work so well for me on that climb.  My 1x9 gearing makes going up the steep hills a little quicker than some with shorter gearing.  I ended up running into the back wheel of the rider in front of me while in tough loose section.  I just couldn't go any slower while maintaining traction.  This resulted in me having to dismount and hike/run up the rest.  Of course, this created a chain reaction for the riders behind me.  There were some words of dissapointment by some, but in all reality, it's a race.  I hate dismounting my bike as much as the next guy.  We all get stuck behind slower riders holding us up out there sometime on the course.  After the climb was over, things started to spread out a bit.  I was sitting in around 7th place or so and trying to hang on to the lead pack.  They gapped me and I settled into my own pace.  My first lap was my fastest lap coming in at 24:21.  We had to do 4 laps.

Boy my gut is fat...lol

The 2nd and 3rd lap were pretty uneventful, but I do remember Justin Mann just leaving me in the dust halfway through my 2nd lap.  That guy was on his game that day and just kicking ass.  BTW - as of writing this, Justin had a bad bicycle accident just yesterday fracturing his neck and kneecap among other things.  I wish him and his wife the best and I'm hoping for a speedy recovery.  I hate it when bad things happen to good people.  I felt good and kept my pace consistent throughout.  I was able to keep the 2nd lap in the low 25 minute range while my 3rd was in the higher 25 minute range.  I remember getting held up by some slower women riders after National Hill, which probably attributes to the slower time.

The 4th lap was starting to get hard.  I remember seeing Barbee about 30 seconds ahead of me.  Maybe I could catch up to him?  Not if Big National Hill has anything to say about it.  The climb kicked me off my bike earlier than previous laps and was sucking the energy out of me.  I was glad to be over with it, but I know I lost time to Barbee.  I was just imagining him pedaling up the whole climb without a hitch.  He's a strong climber.  I still need to find more speed on the climbs.  I crossed the line in 7th place with a time of 1:40:53.  Less than a minute behind Barbee.  I'm happy with those results.  I hope to one day reach the podium this year and I think I can do it.  I'm really not that far off from the podium finishers minus the top 3 guys.  I wonder what would happen if I actually followed a training schedule or hired a coach?  I don't want to do that because that would take the fun out of it for me.  I just like to ride and have fun while riding hard.

Los Olivos in Santa Ynez is up next followed by the Sea Otter Classic the following weekend.  I love this time of year.  Can't wait for the SOC!  For now, I'll keep on riding and enjoying my bike.

PS:  Thank you Frank and Alissa for cheering me on!  Great to see you guys out there.