Bariani Road Race, March 12, 2017

Result
13th of 39

Teammates
Mark Massey (12th), Gregg Marioni (29th)

The Race
This is my third race of the season and I'm realizing now that I didn't file a report on last weekend's Snelling Road Race. Well, I did a little better this weekend. 

My fourth time at this early season event, it’s usually a training race for me. This year, it wasn’t until Saturday night that I knew whether I’d get to race, due to a family health issue. Things improved at home, and I let teammates Mark Massey and Gregg Marioni know I’d be there.

With Larry Nolan (cat 1, NCCF/ Team Specialized Masters), Clark Natwick (cat 1, Pen Velo Racing/Summit Bicycles), and last weeks’s Snelling winner Joe Foster (cat 2 ThirstyBear p/b Akamai), I expected many breakaway attempts by guys who didn’t cherish the thought of letting these guys take the bunch sprint.

I couldn’t connect with Gregg for long before the race, other than to say "hi", and didn’t have time to discuss plans, but Mark and I conferred and decided to mostly stay sheltered as much as possible. We're just a tiny squad and can't execute a big plan.

The wind from the NW was stronger than NOAA billed, and I think it shifted to NNW by lap 2. Warm temps and lots of pale legs spinning.

As I get smarter about racing (I hope), I try to avoid doing too much work. But since there would be significant mid-race attempts to hurt the sprinters, I wanted to play a role in that. Also, this is a training race for me, so I wanted to get into at least one breakaway. During laps 1 and 2, I got into two short-lived breaks. One by bridging up from 6th wheel within seconds when I saw Jon Ornstil (cat 3 Hammer Nutrition) and a couple other guys go (that one came back after a mile or so), and again just as we came through to start lap 2. We had about 5 guys this time, but with a group that size, I think the pack reacted quickly to the threat and our organization in the break didn’t materialize in time before we were caught.

There weren’t any teams with numbers (except Sierra Nevada), so the collaborations were ad-hoc, and it was becoming apparent that this pack was going to stick together. I drifted back to the middle, looking for where Joe and Larry were hiding and started marking them. There were several more solo attacks, but riding the subsequent surges felt smoother farther back in the bunch. Though you do have a higher risk of a split happening–but Larry and Joe aren't going to let anyone get away.

Final Lap, up the ramp to swing west into the wind onto Rd. 19, John Marengo (cat2, Team City) attacked, probably hoping for company, for one last-ditch effort to avoid a bunch sprint, had a 25-second gap by the turn north onto 89A. My teammate Mark Massey joined an effort to bridge up along Rd. 88. They came back, then I saw Tim Davis go off–he never does that… usually stays sheltered and gambles that the break won’t stick, and competes with the best in the sprint.

Marengo got caught just after the turn east onto Rd. 14. On the rollers, Craig Lindberg (cat2 ol'Republic/SERT) attacked and managed to stay away until the pack drilled down the frontage road in the wind-up for the sprint. He still managed 8th.

At the turn south onto the home stretch, the pack was fanned out across the road and while I was near the back, I knew I could move up before things got speedy. Everyone was looking at each other to see who would start something. I was on Mark’s wheel on the left side of the road about mid-pack. Traffic started getting thick over here though. The pace picked up on the right half of the road but a slow blob of guys in the center blocked access to that attractive locale. I couldn’t find or get to my marked guys in the crowd (Larry, Tim, Joe and Clark), and would’ve had to go backwards to come around on the right. Making the decision early to stay in the lee of the crosswind sealed the deal that I’d be stuck in traffic. Mark (12th) and I (13th) came across in at least a bit better position than last week. Larry won, Stephen Gregorios from Torrance (cat 2, Corridor Recycling) and Joe Foster 3rd.

My takeaways from this race

• Balance–racing aggressively vs efficiently. The two approaches don’t often work together, but I do what I can. One thing I do after a race is look at my HR zones (again, no power meter). I was thrilled to see a real balance for the first time: about 40-odd minutes each in zones 2, 3 and 4. I often used to spend much more time in zones 3 and 4. One thing I retained from a clinic with Michael O’Ruorke (cat 2 Peet's Coffee Racing) was his evaluation of the power/HR data from the racers he coaches. He said he could tell they were racing smarter when there was either a balance of time in zones, or preferably less time in the higher zones.
• Threading–Threading through the pack as it shapes up for the sprint needs work. Got to mark the right guys and get on them early.
• Pokerface–The third thing I'm working on is coming along too–when there's a gap to close, I'm making someone else do it. Last season, too many times in breakaways or chase groups, I was the guy who made it too obvious that I was most dedicated to working my little heart out, and the other guys take advantage of that. I'm getting better at dropping the wheel, or at least not reacting as though I'm worried. It's a poker-face thing I guess.