Wow a year has going by quick. This is a tough course and I can remember the course from last year clearly in my mind still. That one was a classic layout. This year's layout was difficult but didn't flow as well as last years; It was something.
The race started on an uphill road climb, then turned left to go down a slight downhill with a hard sandy right hand turn then a climb. It went slightly up then a tough to make climb on the bike after two low hoppable barriers with a short flat section and then a downhill better suited for a mountain bike than a 'cross bike....not a recovery downhill for sure. Back close to the start finish up some stairs
across a sandy flat top then up another shorter climb, more climbing then a down hill
that swung down to the barrier section and then a flat to the short downhill section, pavement across the start finish line and back up the pavement climb to do it all over again.
The 45 minute race didn't start til noon (a good thing) but there were only 4 flights; I (Masters 45+) was in the same flight as the CAT3 & 4s. We had a 10 meter staggered start but that was kinda nutz. A total of roughly 30+ people were in the flight.
I felt as good as I could for the first two laps; due to the mass start I was in a crappy position, but not too far back. I caught and passed some folks and when I saw Scotty, I knew I needed to stay close to him. I actually passed him and got a gap on him, but by then lap 3 had hit me pretty hard; I was 30 seconds slower than lap two and then lap 4 was 12 seconds slower than 3. The damage was done and Scotty had passed me; I kept him in close sight but not close enough and he finished ahead of me by 15 seconds. 5th place for me. Damn. The Garmin
data is here. I finished 16th overall in my flight and 5th in the 45+ Masters cat.
Carol took care of Sadie, I hung out with the 66Fixed crew drank a few adult beverages and helped team mate Scott Atkins with some water hand offs...it was in the 80's by then and hot. Even though I brought my camera, due to the shorten race day, I didn't get any pictures. Big thanks go out to Michelle Blake for taking great shots after kicking butt in her race.
I didn't race the next day due to the course looking like a fast dirt crit.....not my cup of tea and until I get entry fees partially back, I'm going to pick in choose the races I'm willing to travel and pay for.
Still good times.
Ciao,
Rick
Wow....this happened the 31sdt of March and I'm finally putting it down "on paper".
Yes, I actually did a road race/Crit this year and this one is one of my all time favourites. I signed up in the 50+ Masters class....which is a lot tougher than it sounds....lot's of really fast "old guys" out there!
The course is a great one in downtown Tampa....nothing like racing downtown in a "big city". Even though I was about 10 lbs over (race) weight, I really didn't want to miss this one, so I sucked it up and registered.
I had just gotten the Ellsworth Scant back and set up...it felt pretty damn good and I was wearing the (new) Go Pro Hero2 video/camera to record the race. I did some warm ups with the Go Pro on and felt I was using the wrong mount (very shakey vids)so I took it off.
I felt pretty good at the start but after 3-4 laps a split developed as 2 Gearlink and 2 FLVelo riders went up off of the front. That took some of the pressure off as I wasn't going to kill myself trying to close any gap down since we had two (good/fast) guys up in the break.
After awhile the shifting was getting to the point that during and coming out of the turns, I'd drop or gain a gear without doing anything and it kept getting worse. I tried to adjust the cables myself but really didn't have the time to do so and was getting worried about causing a crash due to the yo-yoing of my bike due to the shifting so I decided to go into neutral support (SRAM/Specialized) to have it checked out and corrected. I thought I'd get a "free lap" but the official said it was a maintainance fault and not a mechanical one. The SRAM/Specialized tech said it nmay be a busted shifter and put me on a 54cm Specialized and got me back out in the ace and would try to fix/find the problem. I'm down a lap now.
The Specialized felt pretty good and am glad I swapped bikes.
I finished the race and due to confusion at the finish I sat up instead of finishing another lap hard and let two guys in front of me.
I returned the Specialized bike and picked the Ellsworth back up that the tech had done a great job "fixing" the shifting so it's all good. I should have given more time to get the Ellsworth dialed in before racing but I just didn't have the time to do so.
Still a great race and afterwards, Missy & I hung out at the VIP tent and had yummy food and Cigar City Beer to watch the rest of the rainy then perfect condition races. A bunch of folks I knew were there so it was great to hang out in non-racing gear with riding buddies from The Mid County (riders) Club.
Race data is here and photos that I shot are here.
Good times.
Ciao,
Rick
