Hasty Natz Report

Pretty tired, so this will be brief, and probably a bit random.

Bottom line: CalGiant pretty much dominated the Elite Nationals RR today. You can count for yourself the number of their riders on the podium:

Mattis wins, AJM 2nd, Thurlow!! 3rd

Oh what the heck, you can read for yourself if you click on this pic:
...or, results from cyclingnews.

Hmmm, what to say...

The stats: 120 mile road race on big, wide OC boulevards. Two hills per 20-mile lap, each gaining, perhaps, 250 feet. Big-ring'able every time. A bit of wind, but not too bad. Probably about 80 degrees warm.

131 starters, and naturally a lot of Californians. CalGiant was the biggest team--like 15 riders--and had I written a pre-race post, I would have predicted a CalGiant win. But I would have thought they would have had some battles with the 5-Star Green Giants and the LaGrangian Nation. In fact, my podium prediction would have been: AJM 1st, Adrian Gerrits 2nd, and Adam Livingston 3rd.

I will not complain about anything having to do with this race, because I know it's a ton of work to promote, and no matter what, having it in SoCal is a treat.

But... Two weeks ago, they changed the course. Originally it was to be three 35-miles laps and would have included a really nasty half-mile wall called Modjeska Canyon. I rode that a couple weeks ago (actually, the day before they announced the course change) and man-oh-man, what a beast. Out of the saddle grunting a 39x25, followed by a wickedly technical descent. The field would've detonated on Modjeska. Yes, it would coagulate back into larger groups, but the winning move would have gone away there. My opinion.

'twas not to be. The promoter couldn't get the permits, so today's course was the fall-back. A road race championship with only big-ring climbs. But you know what? It was still hard, proving once again that the riders make the race and not the course.

Oh yeah, another thing I won't complain about ...but will point out... when we were lined up to start, the officials told us that any riders falling more than three minutes behind the lead rider would be pulled. So think about what that means: if an early break went, and quickly got a nice gap, everyone else would be pulled and the break would fight it out among themselves. Weird. It meant that the first couple laps were 30 mph, as all the attacks were chased rabidly. Or, you could say... rapidly. (Red wine is making me punchy...)

On the second lap, a large group (15?) did get a gap, which floated between 45 seconds and a minute for the next hour. Adrian made the split, as did a couple Green Giants (Karl & Diebler?), 45+'er Louie Amelburu from Las Vegas, and gritty ol' C-Walk. On the 3rd or 4th lap, not really sure, some real motors scooted across. Mattis, Thurlow, Paul Martin (last-year's winner), and NorCal's Vinny Owens and Paul Mach. The group up there had swelled to 20 or more. The final two laps saw some serious meltdowns from the front group. Sorry to say, our hero Adrian went backwards and DNF'ed. The Green Giants also cracked. Meanwhile, Thurlow went away with Mattis and AJM ...and that was that. 4th through 15th were also survivors from that front break. The remaining field, about 45 of us, sprinted for 16th. SB's Ken Hanson "won" that. He's freakin' fast. Side story: Ken said some knucklehead on the SB group ride was hassling him going into the Polo Fields sprint. Basically saying, "either lead it out or get out of the way!" I suppose Ken hasn't stamped his authority on that sprint yet, but trust me, if he were to light it up, nobody in town could even come out of his draft, if you could even stay on his wheel. Anyway, I thought I'd do better in the sprint, but I was cramping and went out into the wind to avoid the chaos. I finished 40th. I'm satisfied with that (my previous two Elite Nationals were DNFs) but it's a bit lame to ride just to finish rather than trying to race and compete. Maybe next time, if there is a next time.

More randoms...

My Sweetie Gina worked the feed zone like a pro, handing bottles and musette bags flawlessly to three riders. Thank you sooo much.

Let me tell you that Vince Owens is a bonafide stud. Why? Well, yesterday Vince raced the 92-mile Patterson Pass RR in NorCal where he got 2nd from a break with some Team Type 1 pro. (pic by Steven Woo.) And today he made the key move and finished 13th. He was a cat-3 just two years ago. And his cool and super-nice GF, Jen, spent the whole race with Gina in our feed tent.

Did you note that in there were three SoCal 45+'ers in the top-ten? Thurlow 3rd, C-Walk 8th, and Louie 9th. I don't know whether to cheer my fellow geezers ...or cry, because I have to race against them for the rest of my life!

Aram looked really good today, but unfortunately didn't make the front split. He was 2nd in the big field sprint behind Ken which is a nice result (17th) nonetheless. He was one of just a few guys back in the group who raced from start-to-finish, as opposed to many of us who were just trying to survive. Aram got pretty feisty a couple times, ripping into this poor dude in a Livestrong-sponsored jersey. And then going into the field sprint, he and Kevin Klein were getting into it as they fought for Ken's wheel in back of the Strawberry line.

And speaking of Kevin, apparently in the post-feed-zone frenzy, he launched an empty water bottle that hit race announcer Todd Gogulski (himself a former top US rider in the 80s). I don't know if KK was fined, DQ'ed, or facing suspension, but he was desperately pleading his case to officials. I doubt it was intentional, and the feed-zone chaos at this race was extreme, but of all the places to launch your bottles, the officials' platform is not the best.

Finally, on the subject of NorCal-vs-SoCal, and now that we've completed both Elite and Masters road Nationals, what do you think of this... SoCal has the better Masters roadies (who's gonna beat Thurlow, C-Walk, and Louie?) but NorCal tops the non-Pro Elites. And that goes beyond the Strawberries too. PaulMachDotCom, Vinnie, etc.