Race Report: A Super Weekend of Racing: Boulevard and Red Trolley
By Lucas Binder, SKLZ pb Pista Palace
2/7/11 - I’m not sure where to begin with the Boulevard Road Race. The four hours of racing all seem like one big hypoxic blur. I guess I will start with the weather. For the first time in years the Boulevard RR was held under very fair conditions; conditions in which nearly all the riders of the Pro 1,2 field were able to race without any leg or arm warmers. And there were a lot of riders. Around 70 started in the Pro 1,2 field. While registering I overheard some of the UCSD organizers saying that the race had a record amount of participants. This was my first time racing Boulevard and if I thought that it was painful I can only imagine what it would have been like in the pouring rain/snow that have greeted the race in the past.
The field had many of the faces from the weekend before at the Poor College Kids RR, and many new ones. Pista Palace was represented with 6 guys. Monster Media and LaGrange were well represented as well. The notable new teams present included the Swamis team, about 7 strong, CashCall with at least 8 riders, and coming out from Arizona were quite a few of the green Landis Cyclery riders. A few Jelly Belly riders and one Team Type 1 guy put the “P” into the P/12 field.
The race started out calm enough, probably because the first 10 miles or so is all rolling downhill. However some riders would try to move up on the extremely bumpy shoulder or on the riveted centerline that would shake them and their bikes so much that it made the others around them nervous.
We were all together coming into the first climb. Going over the short but steep railroad tracks bump Sergio Hernandez, me, and one or two other riders got a gap on the field and started to trade pulls, but were soon all back together. It was another mile or so of gradual climbing and near the top a group of around 10 rolled off the front in a similar way the break rolled off the front at the Poor College Kids RR. In the move were 2 from Pista Palace (Marcotte and James Gunn), 2 CashCall rider (Santos and McCulloch), 1 LaGrange (Frayre), and Team Type 1’s William Dugan, as well as a couple Landis Cyclery or Monster Media riders. The break blasted down the descent and up the second climb and some of the riders fell off the pace very early, including my teammate James Gunn who would spend the rest of the race chasing the lead group with a couple other guys who either popped off the lead group or managed to bridge up from the field. Back in the main group things slowed down quite a bit as most of the teams were represented up the road. Swamis and Jelly Belly missed out however and did some work on the descent after the finish line but the break was already long gone and out of sight.
Coming into the first climb on the second lap the field got strung out and I found myself off the back trying to hold on. I was gapped off before the top but managed to get back on during the descent. The second climb felt better but the field still continued to shrink, about 30 strong going into the 3rd lap. At some point during the 2nd or 3rd lap (at this point everything does become a blur of pain) Devan Dunn (CashCall) soloed off the front of the reduced field during a descent and would stay away to nab 10th place, as well as Sergio Hernandez (Jelly Belly) and my teammate Adam Livingston (Pista Palace) getting away on the following climb to finish in that order behind Devan.. Going up the finishing climb the field absolutely exploded. My teammate Anthony Aker was somewhere near the front while I was somewhere in the middle and just trying to follow wheels and keep some kind of rhythm going into the 4th and final lap. On the descent the scattered groups were better able to work together and slowly reformed into a “peloton” of 12 riders. I wasn’t sure how many riders were up the road but knew it was had to be somewhere between 10 and 20. Knowing that the prizes were 20 deep was enough to keep me motivated to try to make it to the finish, but I was unable to do any work at all. But with Anthony somewhere just up the road the rest of the field seemed to be OK with it. I clung to the back during up the La Posta climb, and recovered enough on the descent before the finish climb to follow the lead wheels as our group began disintegrating again. In the final 3km a Monster Media rider time trialed off the front and I was just able to come around the rest of the group to get on his wheels, sprinting around him to get the hardest 19th place ever.
The leaders had finished nearly 20 minutes ahead. Coming into the final climb up highway 80 there were 4 of left, including my teammate Eric Marcotte, Landis Cyclery rider Travis McCabe, a LaGrange rider, and Dugan of TT1. The climbers attacked mercilessly in final 5km and Dugan soloed to the win, with Eder Frayre (LaGrange) and David Santos (CashCall) rounding out the podium. Eric rolled in for 5th, getting passed by a popped rider in the final stretch (someone said some of the riders were drafting the follow car caravan up the climb). Not bad for someone who is also a strong crit rider. No time gaps were ever given to the field, but I thought some would at least be given to the break. However Eric said he was never given one either. I wonder if things might have played out differently if the break knew how far ahead they were.
Red Trolley Criterium
The Red Trolley Criterium is the home race for our team (SKLZ pb Pista Palace) so we were well represented and eager for a good result. Our team was probably the strongest in terms of numbers with 11 guys, followed by the Monster Media, CashCall, LaGrange, and Swamis teams who all contributed a good portion to the 75 riders starting the race. This was also our first crit with our two main sprinters: Eric Marcotte and Rahsaan Bahati.
The speed was fast from the gun and before the first lap was over there was already an attack going up the road. Chris Demarchi (SKLZ pb Pista Palace) initiated the race with a solo move. But, like all of the moves of the day, it would be brought back after less than 2 laps. Most of the early moves seemed to be made up of Pista Palace riders, with CashCall and Monster Media being better represented in the later moves. None of the breaks ever gained more than 20 seconds on the field, and those always seemed to be from a solo rider whom the field was too tired to chase down or decided was not a threat. Some notable ones came from CashCall’s Devon Dunn who was off the front for a little over two laps. I was off the front by myself at one point near the end of the race, but was only able to stay away for about a lap and a half. The course has a small hill in it but it seems to work in favor of the field. The uphill is at the end of a long sweeping right turn and favored the larger momentum of the field. Going solo into the hill at race pace would feel like an actual climb that you would be grinding up near the end, however in the field at race pace the hill would feel like nothing more than a short rise, hardly even requiring you to get out of the saddle.
When it was inside of ten laps to go and clear that the race would come down to a field sprint, Pista Palace began to get organized on the front. I was near the middle of the pack and had to work my way up over the next few laps, which wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but with some bumping and fighting for position the field was getting pretty sketchy at this point and gave me some real motivation to get to the front once I caught my breathe. I slid into the Pista Palace train with about 3 laps to go and the 5 of us began rotating, with 4 more of our guys who have a kick sitting safely behind for the last lap. The speed was not as high as it should have been but it was high enough to maintain control. I took one last pull up the climb as we came into the bell lap. DeMarchi took over next. Eric was dropped off right at the bottom of the climb with Rahsaan on his wheel. Eric powered up the climb so well that the two gapped off the field with Rahsaan coming around in the final stretch to take the win and Eric behind for 2nd.
The SKLZ pb Pista Palace Team gets their train rolling with a few laps to go at the Red Trolley Crit.
photo © Todd Willis
It was a great way to end the weekend of racing after not getting on the podium at Boulevard, and the crit ended well enough that made up for it taking place during the Super Bowl. I guess this is the one crit of the year where all the other categories had a more favorable start time. I still don’t know who won. You know you’re a hardcore bike racer when you don’t know who won the Super Bowl because you were riding your bike.
Next weekend is the first stage race of the year; Valley of the Sun SR in Arizona. Finally an out-of-state race with some good weather; I don’t think I could handle this horrible Southern California weather we have been having much longer.
