A sunny day, a 7 PM start. In theory, flats, but due to some work on the drag strip, it’d be counter-clockwise with the escape route. Should be a good hills workout, especially after all the March racing. The 1/2/3s head out… then the Masters. Huh… there’s still a lot of people about.

Over 90 people, to be exact!

It’s just a huge, huge pack. It’s actually a bit intimidating, to be honest. I’m in the middle. The first couple of laps are tough and I’m winded… I’m not bombing down the escape route as there’s tons of people. And it’s tough moving up, as the pack is fast… very fast. It’s 30 minutes, so people are taking it like a crit, and I’m having a hell of a time climbing. I get dropped after the 2nd hill, so I sit up at top for the pack to come around. When they do, I race to catch on the back… and don’t! The pack is moving at around 26-28 MPH, and I can’t catch on for the life of me. Turns out the 4/5s also passed the Masters… just a fast moving pack. I do one more lap, then I’m done. Oof!

Hill repeats. Must do hill repeats.

An annual tradition started early this year. On Tuesday, Budu Racing started its twilight racing series at Pacific Raceways! Every Tuesday night at 7 (6:45 for the first two weeks) is a quick ~hour long race along the 2-mile track at PR. About a third of the time it’s “the flats” which means a 2-mile loop on a flat course. The other 2/3 are along the back, which have a descent and ascent of some slope, depending on which direction we’re going that week. They’re quick practice races, good to get the legs pumping.

This week, there was a huge crowd — well over 50 in the 4/5s. We just did 6 laps for 30 minutes, but were cruising between 23 and 25 MPH each lap. I finished upper-middle of the pack; I don’t think there were many drops. Did some time pulling, spent some time at the back, busted up a few times… generally worked on cornering and moving within the pack. Good times.

Oh, and best of all - I got #39 again this year. Bit of luck, bit of timing… w00t!

Well, after a month or so galavanting around Europe, I was back on track on the track - Pacific Raceways, counter clockwise down the escape route. An hour around the track. There was a decent field; a bit small but enough for a good race. I was hoping to make at least half the laps before getting dropped, and that turned out accurate. Around lap 5, the legs started to burn up the hill, and lap 6 I got popped. I chased back on during the flats, but on the next uphill I had no energy left. I sat out a lap and caught back on for another couple when the pack came around again after five minutes. This was actually much better than toughing it out solo… the final laps are interesting, especially the last which feels more like a 2-mile semi-sprint rather than a normal finish. Because of the big uphill climb, on the downhill everyone spreads out and then on the uphill people are already sprinting, as there’s no help from drafting.

Good race regardless… next week is up, which I’ll probably miss, and then the final race in two weeks - flats!

In the official Pacific Raceways flier, Rory leaves a clockwise and counter clockwise day open so he can decide on the day of the event whether to use the S-Curve or Escape Route. Today, we were doing clockwise, which scares people away — HILL! And since it wasn’t known to use the escape route, people guessed it would be the S-Curve, meaning BIG HILL! But, thanks in small part to the heat on asphalt, we just did the easier clockwise loop - escape route. This was still brutal, as it’s a big hill about 10 times. I managed to get dropped on the first preme when the pack bolted after the hill - finish line was at the main grandstands where we start, vs at the hilltop. I didn’t feel like waiting out a lap, so I just muscled through, occasionally catching a draft with the Masters or once the 123s. Given how small the field was today, it wasn’t that big a deal.

That’s it for a while for PR — no event next week, and I’m out for a few weeks after that. So perhaps a closing event in August or so!

Today, July 3rd, the day before July 4th, we had a weird race at PR. It was the flats and fairly benign at first, at least for the 4/5s and Masters. However, the 1/2/3s only had about 25 in the field, and it disintegrated pretty quickly after numerous attacks. At one point, a few overtook the 4/5s (and we went neutral right - meaning we slowed to a neutral pace and let the 1/2/3s pass on the left - as is normal). Then shortly a few more overtook, but yelled for us to go neutral left. Then the 4/5 peleton overtook the combined breakaway as they apparently sat up. This was weird, and at some point people squeezed in while we were going about 30 MPH… and we had some bumping, and next thing you know it’s a 8 person pileup, including myself. Ow.

I’m a bit scraped up, but nothing bad. The bike appears to be fine - I need to retrue the front wheel, and I need a new saddle, but I didn’t really like the one I had anyway, so no big deal. One of the other guys in the pileup may have broken his collarbone - an EMT racing with us took him to check.

Here’s a snapshot of the HRM right before the crash to see what it looks like… nice and dramatic!

Well, as they say, if you race enough, it’s not if, but when you crash. Although I was getting some ribbing about maybe now I’ll shave my legs to make healing scrapes a bit easier… although I’ll have to see if MK will let me.

Update 7/5/2007 - The guy behind me was apparently recording… check out the video! Looks like just the guy in front stopped and veered left, and then I plowed into him and others plowed into me. Plus, I did apparently go down on my right side, as much as I thought I went down on my left. Huh!

Today was another S-Curve day at Pacific Raceways. I thought I had some energy, but after my first warm-up lap, I knew I was in a bit of trouble. Just not fully there today. I felt my legs were tired, and I wasn’t terribly comfortable on the bike for some reason. Plus, I managed to forget my HRM, which bugged me.

I managed to hang on for 4 laps I think, then got popped on the back hill. I muscled it out and finished the remaining 5, including one after the rest of the 4/5s finished. More of a pride lap than anything. My back was sore — probably due from a heavy weight lifting day and exercising the lower back — and overall, well, blech.

And I suck at hills. Yeah, I know CCW w/ S-Curve is a rough hill, but it’s basically a 50-foot 90-foot climb… shouldn’t be enough to get me. And if it was just the S-Curve, I’d be easier, but Enumclaw, Ravensdale, and previous runs…. all points to a need to push more on the hill! So, time to do some research and start getting the legs in shape for next season. Yeah, a bit early already, but I’m likely in Europe last half of July, and August is when everything starts winding down. So, may as well look ahead now!

Today I raced PR on the flats in a 60 minute point-per-lap race. The difference between flats and flats point-per-lap is that on flats, the first guy across the line wins. In point-per-lap, each lap the first rider over gets a point, and most points wins. This changes the strategy a lot, as there tends to be a lot of sprinting at the end of each lap as well as an attack by the pack to overtake the sprinters as they try and recover.

Some of the other Winos there mentioned how tough the race tended to be. As there were only 2 other 4/5s, I decided to sit in and just go for a pack finish and figure out the race. The race was a bit weird… both preme laps were actually very slow. There were also a few well-represented teams that were clearly trying to work the crowd — the FSA guys as well as Old Town Bicycle crew did well. A few times 4-6 riders from the team would speed up to the front and give one of their guys a great leadout for the point. Zoka had a number of riders there, but they didn’t seem to be working as a team on the win.

I sat in… on the first preme lap, Jamie got a flat and bailed, leaving just Jon and I. I had plenty of gas at the end of the race, so clearly I could have pushed a bit more, but I wanted to make sure I knew what was going on first. Besides, sprinting for the last finish turns out not to matter in a point-per-lap race… it’s at best a pride thing.

May 15th - Counter-clockwise with the S-Curve. This is the most technical course at PR. On the downhill, rather than bombing through the “escape route” the peleton rides around a S-curve at the base of the downhill. This requires some breaking and handling, and is great practice for cornering at speed. Of course, for the 4/5s, it’s slow as we all break and then sprint to catch up to the folks who were in the front of the peleton and took the S-curve with more speed than the rest of us did.

I managed to botch the 2nd lap. I was towards the back of the peleton, and let it get away on the downhill so I could zip along with momentum. I’d then catch up to the peleton on the uphill. This kind of worked, but I got gapped on the flats and burned up a lot of energy catching back up to the pack. I was able to stick with it for another lap, but then just got dropped on the next lap. Michael, one of the 1-2-3s, was also riding solo (recovering from the flu), so he gave me and an Oberto junior a wheel for a lap. We stopped at the finish, which was a lap earlier than the rest of the 4/5s, but I was done… just blew out too much energy early on, and the hill took care of the rest. Moral of the story: stay up with the pack, don’t yo-yo on the middle!

May 8th, Pacific Raceways held the “flats” course. This is a speedy flat loop around the course, and tends to have a big field. Today was no different. We raced around the course for 8 laps, or about 40 minutes. At the end of the last turn before the final straightaway, the field squeezed itself into an arrow, with a long single-file line of maybe ten riders. I had swooped around on the outside, and decided to sprint a bit early to either give one of our guys a leadout (a Wino was leading the peleton) or go for it. I had some momentum, and found myself sprinting for the finish. So, seeking a new all-time Max HR, I busted out.

Sadly, about 50 meters from the finish, the rest of the pack caught up and started to pass. I was just unable to hold the speed, which was about 33 MPH. So, as riders passed, I let up, knowing my race was over. I finished with the pack as they overtook me.

So, lesson learned… I can’t hold a sprint for 400 meters yet. Gotta work on that.

This is just an archival placeholder for a CCW-ER route… I think I had a reasonable ride, at least according to the HRM. Didn’t look like I got dropped or anything weird… just a pack finish. But hey, that’s good too!