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| No, this isn't the finish–just another shot at a prime photo: Jennifer Kinion |
| Event | Colavita-Norcal Grand Prix (criterium) | ||
| Date | 7/20/2014 | ||
| Group | Masters 45/55+ Cat 3/4 | ||
| Bib # | 952 | ||
| Result | tbd | ||
| Course (per flyer) | Located in Novato, CA at the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company Campus. The Course is 1.1 miles, totally enclosed, private property, excellent pavement, lots of parking. Long straight finish. | ||
| Details of Race |
It
wasn't until the day before that I decided to do this race. While
I want to race as often as possible, admittedly I try to select
events that offer the best potential for accumulating upgrade
points. This race had two strikes against it: category 4 mixed
with cat 3. And the fact that it is a criterium. I figured that
the chance of placing well among cat 3 racers wasn't great. I've
done okay in crits, but I'm certainly no specialist.
I
pre-rode the course the day before the race and found it to be
relatively flat, fast and non-technical. No sharp turns and the
road surface is excellent. I decided to race.
After
a long, dry summer and spring, race day was muggy and humid with
occasional drizzle threatening to grease up the course.
Our
race was not only a combination of cat 3 & 4, but the 45+
masters were combined with the 55+ masters. While the two age
groups would be picked separately, the categories would not. I
couldn't count riders but I'm guessing there were at least 40 of
us.
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The
combination of a subtle elevation gain and coincidental headwind
on the backside of the course had a huge impact on rider speed in
that area. I often used this section to move up through the
peloton and a couple of times launched attacks here also.
There
were two or three breakaway attempts by others which didn't stick.
I resisted the urge to chase, trying to sit in and conserve energy
for my silly “prime-dreams”.
|
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| photo: Jennifer Kinion |
By
the bell lap, the pack was still together. The average speed
increased to 28-29 mph as we all attempted to maneuver into the
front of the pack. On the backside of the course I was about to
accelerate when two squirrely jackasses cut sharply across from
right to left, missing my front wheel by less than an inch. Yeah,
this is racing and it's a crit, so sure there's going to be some
knocking around but that kind of disregard is inexcusable. The
rider who nearly clipped me was big but I launched my acceleration
and on the way past him I really got in his face with some foul
language that I'm not proud of. I think I hurt his feelings, but
my main message was “Watch your @#&!ing line you d#ck!”
Because
of the slight delay in launching my acceleration I was not in the
front ten riders by the last turn. I was too far back on the
300-meter straightaway to be anywhere close to a good result.
As
we gathered to see posted results, the finish official
apologetically informed us that the camera “choked” and didn't
record the riders crossing the line. He asked us to help him sort
out the finishing order by recounting what we saw. A still
photographer who had been shooting photos also helped out by
showing his shots on the small LCD panel on the back of his
camera.
Everyone
was certain who the top three riders were, which was good enough
for distributing prizes. Eventually after comparing the
photographer's pictures with riders' kits, and even tattoos,
a partial, hand-scrawled, semi-official result sheet was posted.
My
number was nowhere on the sheet. I knew I was at least twelve or
more riders back of the winner, but in all of my results to date,
I'm really proud and feel very lucky to not have any DNPs or DNFs
(Did Not Place or Did Not Finish). I didn't want this to be my
first, so I chatted with the official after he was walking the
results of a later race over to be recorded and posted. I
mentioned that my dad had his GoPro camera recording near the
finish line and the official's eyes lit up. He said if I could
send him that video file he might be able to use it to confirm
some more of the results. He gave me his business card and I drove
up to dad's house to copy the file. That evening I sent it to the
official via one of my online file transfer services.
I
haven't heard back from him and as yet there's no evidence that he
has downloaded the file.
No
official results have been posted yet but from the looks of the
frame-grabs that dad made from the
video, I came in about 20th in the group.
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