Sunday 5/7/06, EMC2/Vellum Criterium

[BikeMomma]

Fresh home from this race & hopefully I can crank out this report in one sitting before succumbing to a nap that keeps wanting to happen. I doubt they have the results page up yet, so I’ll come back and post that whenever they do, and maybe any pics I can find.

This was a fun one, and I did well, especially as us Cat 4’s were racing against the Cat 3’s. They don’t separate the two categories in the final race results, so where you finish in the pack, that’s what you go home with. There were 26 riders that finished – I don’t know how many started – and I placed 16th! I’m pretty jazzed! Rocket-grrrl Charlotte nabbed fourth again, and still wouldn’t share her wine winnings with me. Ha! Charlotte, if you read this, thanks for the Hammer stuff, the awesome tunes, the grreat company, and the gas money that you didn’t need to give me.

The course was a short clockwise loop in a business park just off of Hopeyard Ave in Pleasanton. The streets looked reeeally familiar…I think the Cinderella route passes close by. There were three 90-degree corners and one wide sweeping corner, and the roads were smooth and fairly wide, with lots of shade trees. Overall, an excellent course.

The pace of this race was rather strange sometimes. We started off slow and then someone rode fast up the side, probably to get things started, and then it went off from there. We had moments when we were flying, and then we slowed, and it just kept on like that. With 10 or so laps to go, there was a yukky crash that happened just ahead of me and to the left – three ladies went down from what I could see, and I learned later that the loud bang we heard was her bike breaking in pieces (if you read this, glad you gals are ok and hope you’re back out there soon with a brand new ride…). They still hadn’t cleared the road by the time we came around again, so they neutralized us for a couple laps, and then completely stopped and restarted us with 9 laps to go. No more incidents after that.

Overall, very fun! Here’s my stats…again, I forgot to clear my computer before we started (airhead ), so the riding around I did before the race is included, as well as our slower neutral laps: Total time/ 1:35:38; Distance/ 28.81mi; Max speed/ 29.0mph; Avg speed/ 18.0mph; Calories burned/ 827; Avg hr/ 159; Max hr/ 188.

Thanks for reading! Naptime (while my kids are asleep too)! ZZZzzzzzz.......
~BikeMomma

p.s. Almost forgot -- was anyone out riding their tandem with their DH/SO at the shopping center near Dublin Ave today? This would have been around 11:30/:45 or so. We visited Peets and while I was sitting outside, saw an awesome purple tandem with two dressed-alike riders go by. You guys looked great.

[Lise]

These races sound amazing. Glad you had a great day. I rode my usual route of city streets today, and took a left hand turn pretty fast. I guess that seldom happens in my world, because I felt rather shaky doing it. I'm fine with the right hand turns. But when I read "three 90 degree corners", I shuddered. More power to you!

[Trekhawk]

Congratulations on the 16th slot. Sounds like you are having a blast out there.
Cornering fast - yep thats another part of riding Ill enjoy thru your ride reports.

Trek-corners like a snail-hawk

[cindysue]

Congrats Kim!

I can't imagine keeping that pace for that long!

Where are your races in June? Maybe we could get a group of gals to go watch, then head out for a ride afterwards.

[bikerz]

Where are your races in June? Maybe we could get a group of gals to go watch, then head out for a ride afterwards.

That sounds fun - we'll be so inspired!

[BikeMomma]

Yea, that does sound fun. I'll check out the racing calendar to see what's coming up. It gets sortof sparse during the summer months. Once it gets hot, it's hard to hold a multi-category race day/weekend. Don't want all the racers keeling over from heat exhaustion. Maybe there's something on the coast, though.

If not, we still have our Monterey ride on the 29th of June. That will be fun!
~BikeMomma