2012 Poor College Kids RR Recap
LOS OLIVOS, CA – As normal race reports start with the ever popular smell of coffee or the deafening sound of an alarm clock going off, this morning was to be slightly different. We had Ryan “Bonecrusher” (or ‘The Feeder’ as he has come to be known) Schneider ceremoniously repeating the exact time of day until we eventually agreed to get up.
On our way to the race we struggled to find the right song for the occasion, but eventually stumbled upon the ever faithful ACDC- Back in Black to get us “Pumped”(more on this later)*
Registered, pinned numbers on our shirts etc etc… Long story short, all of a sudden the Pro/1/2 riders take off while Austin Carroll, Jos le Roux and myself were still laughing about gingers or something. So for the first mile we were just trying to make contact with the peloton, let alone trying to be part of the racing. Once we made contact with the bunch, the pace was quite mellow with no-one really keen to do any pace making.
So, the circuit was an out and back loop of about 28 miles. Nothing too technical besides the narrow roads we had to negotiate with a bunch of 70 riders. There was one climb of about 2.5 miles on the way out and the same hill being 1.5 miles on the way back (obviously being a little bit steeper on the way back… genius). This was to be the main obstacle of the day as a select group of riders would be able to split the field. Besides that, it was a beautiful course winding through wine farms and horse ranches. The finish was very tricky as the last mile was fairly flat and fast, but with 800 feet to go it kicked uphill at 10-12% gradient.
In the first lap there was always going to be hopeful attacks and accelerations, but nothing really stuck. On the way back on the first lap the pace picked up a little on the climb which caused a lot of riders to lose contact with the leading bunch of 20 riders. On the way down the other side a chasing group of 15 riders managed to bridge the gap of 30 seconds as the leading bunch wasn’t very organised in working together.
On the second lap, more or less the same thing happened — a few riders lost contact on the climbs, some moves going and coming back, but all came back together again. It was on the third lap that the decisive move took place — just after the start/finish area there was a bit of a lull, partly because no-one was really attentive and pro-active in making any moves and partly because all the accelerations caused some riders to have tired legs. That gave Chris Walker (multiple national champ, aged 50-something!!!), myself and a few other riders the opportunity to slip off the front unnoticed. We worked well together in a breakaway group of 7 riders up to the turnaround point where I received information from the lead motorbike that there were 4 riders bridging the gap to us at 25 seconds down. I had a strong suspicion that the chasing group would contain Jos and Austin and immediately stopped working in the leading group to help them catch us.
They caught up with us and things were starting to look good for Team Simple Green/Bike Religion as we had 3 riders in the leading group of 14 riders. I gave Austin the signal to try and get off the front, which he was successful in, taking with him Chris “the beast” Walker. They quickly established a 40 second lead over us, and I knew that either Jos or myself would have to bridge over the gap soon, or an effort in doing so would be in vain. I attacked from the back of the group, caught them off guard and managed to get 15 seconds fairly quickly. The chasing bunch was not working together very well, so my only focus was now the 2 lonely figures in the distance ahead of me. In my pursuit of catching them I kept asking myself why I didn’t go earlier when the gap was just 25 seconds. It wasn’t very efficient and it definitely wasn’t pretty (out of my perspective at least) but I managed to cross the gap to Austin and Chris. The three of us worked together nicely, each of us taking equal pulls on the front, never easing off. We opened the gap to about 90 seconds by the time we took the last left hand bend 1 mile from the finish. There wasn’t much cat-and-mouse going on as Austin, being the consummate professional, dedicated himself to sitting on the front keeping the pace high to give me the privilege of sitting 3rd wheel (being favourable in not having to watch anyone behind you, and deciding when to start the sprint). I decided to go early, with 1500 feet to go, as Chris wasn’t expecting it. I managed to catch him off guard, got a decent gap and only had to sustain the effort to the line. Austin also managed to kick some distance between himself and Chris and nearly passed me in the process!
In the chasing bunch of 10 riders, Jos le Roux was doing a great job of blocking the riders and getting them disorganised. In the dash to the line he managed a 2nd place out of the chasing bunch, which meant 5th on the day.
On the day we got 1st, 2nd and 5th in only our second race together. Looking forward to Boulevard this weekend!
–Christiaan Kriek
*Getting pumped (According to Ryan, I sound like Arnold when I speak)
Click Image to Enlarge
