2013 Foothill College Circuit Race - pro 1/2

Race: Foothill College Circuit Race P12

Course: 60min and description per promoters webpage, "Course is a clock-wise 1.09 mi. loop around Foothill College campus, on good, clean pavement. 60 feet of climbing per lap. Start/Finish on top of hill at the pedestrian bridge."this will be relevant later ;)

Teammates: Tim L., Sean S., Carmi, Matt A., Lee P, Jesse C., Pablo E. and myself. Awesome crew!

Results: http://instagram.com/p/bxbFOxlRAp/#

2nd - James, 7th - Lee,  top 15 for Matt (forgot to get a photo of the results)

How it went down: Over 40 riders showed up at the start line, Lots of solo heavy hitters, and several squads such as Leopard-Sapporo & Lombardi having a handful of riders. Our plan was to be active, we better be we had a lot of guys in this race! Pretty open ended plan of marking moves and making sure we have someone in every move, with Matt & myself (if my legs had any snap in them today) being our sprinters if it came down to a field sprint.

Early: Riders took a lap or two to get the lay of the land and then it was pretty much attack after attack. SquadraSF was simply in every move that mattered. If we somehow missed it which was race someone would either bridge to it or tighten the screws at the front and let the pack real them in. This was a great display of our strength, Natalie (my wife) was on the sidelines watching and said the announcer was always mentioning SquadraSF and that we ALWAYS had someone in the move! Having so many teammates being active was great, I could follow an attack that made sense based on my location in the pack relative to my teammates and how gassed I was at the time. I honestly can say every single rider on our crew was up the road at some point. Made my racing less nervous and tactics much easier.

All the early moves were brought back quickly since the race was pretty much full gas, but after the mid-point you could tell that people were getting tired the pace would let up more often, This couldn't have happened at a better time because all of my early moves were brought back pretty quick and I would be immediately sent to the back of the pack to lick my wounds. A little demoralized I decided to continue simply marking moves and told Matt he is our guy for the Sprint.

Final Break: With about 7 to go, Rob S. (Fremont Bank) and another rider are given a bit of a leash on the first hill, I move up knowing they have some firepower and bridge across over the finish hill. Next time up the hill the other rider gets popped and I give some encouraging words to Rob saying we got a pretty big gap lets go for it. After a lap or two the gap is about the same but Rob Evans (BearDev) bridged solo. The three of us work together pretty well, we can hear time checks over the loudspeaker, ranging from 10-20seconds, about one turn ahead of the pack. My teammates did a amazing job patrolling the front, Natalie recalls seeing Lee & Carmi on the front clearly holding thier ground up there but riding a false tempo. Word on the street is Pat Briggs brought it back almost within reach on the final lap then handed it over to anyone else and everyone just looked at each-other for that split second.

Finale: About that same time, I had just done a final hard pull up the main climb and try to get Rob or Rob to take the final decent. They hesitate, I give some more encouragement that they are right on our tail and gonna catch us if we mess around. So Rob takes the decent and I jump on his wheel, Evans on mine. I jump hard at the bottom of the decent and start the long sprint to the "start/finish on top of hill at the pedestrian bridge", I have the inside line and legs have some pop left in them and am able to spin it up pretty good... fly under the pedestrian bridge where the finish was in 2011 & 2012 with Evans still behind me, I stop pedaling after passing the pedestrian bridge thinking the race is over, sit straight up, and throw an arm up. Announcer even calls it that I won, then I realize Evans is still going full gas and his front wheel just passes mine at the 2nd tent which happened to be the one with the finish line and camera 50m past the initial tent and pedestrian bridge. OHH NO I DID NOT JUST DO THAT.....YES I DID, luckily it wasn't much farther than the old finish line so my momentum carried me fast enough to still only miss the win by less than one wheel, but SHIT that is one hard lesson. Happy with 2nd Place for sure but it definitely not a WIN that was almost in my pocket. Don't assume anything and pay attention to important details such as where the finish line tape it.

Anyways the pack was literally on our heels, Tim was leading out Matt and got boxed in. Lee freelanced his way to 4th in the field good enough for 7th Place with Matt just a little farther back somewhere in the top 10 or so in the field sprint. Again SquadraSF was by far the most active team and was mentioned more than any other team during the race. Despite my finish line location F-up I think it was a victory for the team as a whole. Natalie watched the whole thing and was really impressed by the entire SquadraSF crew!

Amateur Tip: Primes are a great way to open up the legs, test the final sprint, and practice your line for the final sprint. Going for a prime earlier would have been a perfect place to make my mistake.

Data Geek Info: Strava File - http://app.strava.com/activities/67179655
Time: ~60min
Distance: ~26mi
Elevation Gain: 1840ft
Power: 285w NP w/ 235w Ave.

Final Break was ~15min w/ 308w NP & 296w Ave