Pedalling Squares

Pilarcitos Stage Race, March 27-28, 2004

Description:
Two TT's (one hilly and one "flat") and a crit. GC based on points, calculated after determining the winners of each stage.

Stage 1:
An extremely hilly 30K TT with two roughly 1 mile climbs, one at nearly 10% gradient. The rest is rolling with some flatter section thrown in.

How It Went Down:
I chose to use a regular road bike setup with some clip-ons (thanks Vaughn). Vaughn and I previewed the course a few weeks ago so I knew vaguely what to expect. It was definitely a ball-buster.

It starts off flat, but not for long. I quickly passed my 30 second man and then Demian (who was saving himself for the second TT). At the top of the first climb, I passed another guy. Then there was a long descent - I was my usual cautious self. Then it was rollers for a few miles, with some bad pavement. Then a little more cruisin' . . . some slight uphill until you come into view of the second gnarly climb. It's about a 1 mile climb but it does have a little rest spot in the middle. I powered up it and almost caught 2 more guys near the top, but they got away from me a little on the descent. The last hairpin turn - I must have lost 10 seconds. I took it very gingerly as it seemed to be a little damp and slippery in addition to being a hairpin. Then more gentle rollers to the finish. I did just over 46 minutes. Nothing spectacular. Afterwards, it didn't felt like I rode with quite enough . . . how can I say it, inspiration. Oh well, more for the next one, I guess.

Stage 2:
This was supposed to be the flat 11K TT. There might have been some essence of flat, but that's about it. There was a definite climb around the midway point, but the rest was definitely not flat.

How It Went Down:
Luckily, we had a little tailwind, so that was pretty cool. For this one I used the bitchin' new Land Shark TT setup. It's still not quite dialed in yet, but it'll do in a pinch.

After last week's TT at Madera I thought I'd try to push some bigger gears this time and see how that worked. The first part was a slight uphill, then downhill, then a climb at the 3 mile mark. The tailwind made it feel easy, but then it felt like a crosswind which sucked. So I jammed it up the hill as hard as I could and got ready for the roller coaster. There were 2 big downhills and then the last part was a winding slightly downhill section with a few rollers for good measure. I managed to get through all of it in the aero tuck, except for one section where I sat up for just a moment and then tucked again. The whole time I was pushing a bigger gear than I normally would. It felt a little unnatural, but I ended up 5th. And 3rd place was only about 2 seconds faster.

At this point I was in 4th place on GC.

Stage 3:
A .67 mile industrial part crit, with a tight hairpin and one narrower section. With a big field, this would really suck. But we only had about 35-40, so while there would be a lot of fast/slow/fast/slow, it shouldn't be too bad. Rob and Demian talked before and agreed that Demian would try to bring back the breaks and Rob would hang with me and try to move me up in the final laps.

I started off really well - eventually moving to the front and policing everything. I made a mousy attack or two, followed a few others, and basically just kept a watchful eye out. Rob was doing a good job of helping me here and there. I was in good, not great, position for the first sprint bonus, but came out of the last corner in 6th - not good enough. Demian had already come off the back by now - he got gapped early and was never able to catch back on.

Somewhere in here, I started to lose my place a little. It happened gradually, but the next thing I knew, I was in the bottom third of the pack. The second sprint bonus went by and I wasn't even close. Then we had the 10 laps to go announcement. Rob dutifully came up to help me move up. But it was tough and we weren't making much progress. We kept trying, but just weren't getting anywhere. I saw the 3rd placed guy on GC up ahead - if only I could stay with him. I saw the guy in 6th place on GC up ahead. Oh no! To make it worse, I came around the hairpin for the last (finally) time and came unglued from my pedal - oops!

I don't remember where I ended up in the crit, but I was tied for 6th overall on points. I was 5 points out of 5th place (and the podium and money). Normally, I could easily have beaten 5 of those guys in the sprint, but it just didn't work out. Those points races are tough! Rob and I talked afterwards and agreed that I probably lost the GC in the last third of the race. I really needed to move up earlier because it was a fight to hold position and especially to move up.