UCLA Road Race - E3

Course: 4 laps of a 12.5 mile loop with ~1500ft of climbing each lap. Basically all up or down except for a few mile flat section with a pretty good cross wind after the fast decent. The start/finish is about 1/3 the way up the climb.

Report: So after checking the ever-changing weather forecast for Pearblossom, CA the last few days, Jason Habeger and I decided to roll the dice and drive up and race this HARD road race. I did the race last year in the 3s and fell off the back of the lead group and rolled across the finish wasted in 8th. This year I was looking for revenge. When we arrived we were pleased to see the sun shining, but the wind was howling and was damn cold. I think is was hovering around 40 degrees when we rolled off at 12:40 with about 25 other Cat 3s.

The first lap was pretty mellow, one SDBC rider went off the front all alone, but never got too far. The cross wind section did sting the legs so basically the decent was the only place to rest the legs on the course.

Lap 2 the pace ramped up and a few little attacks were quickly brought back. The momentum was kept over the top and on the fast decent. We hit the flat cross wind section and riders were chasing on and the group was pretty strung out. A few riders had stick off the front that I knew were strong so I jumped from the front of the group and added some pace to the sneaky move. Jason Holden followed my lead. We had some good horsepower and cranked it up to get a gap. Everyone buried their heads and soon the moto came up and said 10seconds, then by the time we were on the climb it was 25. We settled down a bit and just rode a hard tempo rotating through on the climb.

Lap 3 Jason Habeger was having an off day so he decided to call it a day. The dreaded snow started to fall. By the top we had 1:05 on the peleton. Again we flew down the decent and eased a bit on the crosswind section where a SoCal Cycling and Helens rider bridged.

Here is a photo of the Pro1/2 race that was racing at the same time as the 3s. Great weather eh.

Lap 4 two additional riders bridged at some point, but most of what was left of the peleton was scattered all over the course and many called it a day. Again the pace up the climb was tough! Now the snow/sleet was coming down hard and everyone was wet and thus COLD. The decent was freezing and my glasses totally iced over and I had to take them off as my fingers lost function. Everyone was slapping the ice off their arm and leg warmers. One rider was taking a few risks on the decent and everyone in the break was content to let him go. Later I found out that this rider was friends with the (3) Helens guys that were in the break. In the cross winds there were the typical anxious attacks and soft pedaling by all. The lone rider off the front held us off and it was a uphill sprint for the now 8 or so in the break. I managed second in the sprint to grab 3rd on the day. After about 30min of sitting in my car with the heater on full blast I finally came back to life. It was great to initiate a break and have it succeed for once (even if it did swell a bit). In retrospect maybe I was doing more than my fare share in the break and should have saved a bit more to follow he late attacks and/or the sprint, but I really wanted this one to stick.


Result: 3rd