Santa Ynez Valley Classic Race Recap

I've been lagging with race updates, but better late than never, right?  The weekend started out by driving up Saturday with James, Heather, and JD in JD's Fun Mover RV.  Thanks for hooking that up JD!  When we arrived at the venue, the weather was great with some gusts of wind.  We all did a pre-lap and as soon as I finished with my lap, I ran into Nick D. who was getting ready to get his lap in.  I was only planning on doing one lap, but he said it would be a mellow ride.  I decided to join and off we went.  Little did I know that shortly after we pedaled off, the effort would start to increase.  I don't know what it is, but whenever Nick and I pedal together, we just can't take it easy...lol!  I did go much harder than I wanted to and I was hoping there would be no ill effects come race day.  The day ended with eating some horrible AYCE spaghetti and beers around the campfire with good people.

I didn't get a good nights sleep as I was too paranoid about the bikes locked up and hanging on the Team Velosport EZ-UP outside.  I could hear the wind picking up as morning approach and that led to more paranoia of the EZ-UP just blowing away.  The morning approached and of course my paranoia was in vain.  Everything was fine.  I suited up and began my warmup for my 8:30am start time.  It was brisk but not terribly cold outside.  The winds were fairly calm, but the clouds looming above looked very threatening.

The race start for once was not a blistering pace.  I was able to squeeze into the top 6 or so in the initial paceline.  Things didn't start to break up until the first legitimate climb.  Barbee and I traded spots back and forth for most of the race until shortly after the beginning of the third lap.  I think this was the first CAT1 race where I wasn't in no man's land.  It was really fun battling for position with Barbee.  He would edge me out on the climbs mostly, but I was able to reel him back in on the singletrack descents.  I tried to attack him a couple of times, but I couldn't shake him that far off from my wheel.  The wind was pretty awful on some of the ridges.  At times, I was fighting to stay upright on my bike as the cross wind was that strong.  Barbee got away from on the 3rd lap.  I felt I had the strength to fight on, but mentally I was done.  My brain didn't want to suffer anymore and because of that, I lost the fight.  Barbee wanted it more than I did.  I ended up taking the 6th spot with a time of 2:10:39.  Looks like I continue to be worst of the best.  The next closest competitor was over 11 minutes behind.  I'm always hovering right below the podium.  It's in my sights, just need to push through the pain for a little bit longer.  I'm hoping I can get there soon.  I think my best chance is going to be at Elings Park, Santa Barbara come June.  I really enjoy that course as it suits my style of riding much more with it's punchy climbs, tight switchbacks, and 95% singletrack.

The next SoCal State race is Big Bear mid May.  The BB races are my least favorite of the series.  The format is a big loop with no laps.  It's funny, I used to like the big loop format last year, but this year I'm more in favor of the lap format.  I think it's because there's less inexperienced traffic on the course at one time.  The big loops generally are more of problem since all amateurs are sent off in waves instead of seperating the different catergories into two individual races.  Congrats to James on his win as well as JD and Heather's podium appearance.  Stay tuned for my Sea Otter Classic writeup.

Barbee on my wheel.

Can't shake the Barbee.