Dana Point
Posted on June 2, 2008
Great race! Have to give it to the organizers, the event is a great one. The venue, course (much better and less stressful this year), prizes, primes and even a drunken Floyd. He decided to show up. I know some people could not stand his signing, but I only got to hear him for about 30 minutes and I was OK with that 
Lots of people showed up and I guess the fields were pretty big. At least the ones that I watched. CAT-3′ were somewhat small, but completely manageable. I don’t think I would have felt safe in a 100+ CAT-3 field on that course, just not going to happen.
I got there pretty early and it gave me some time to warm-up and get all my stuff together. Had plenty of prep time, the whole nine yards and the race was on. We had 5 guys in the race and the numbers looked good. My goal was to finish upright and see how my body would react to some moves.
With the previous races putting up some wrecks people were pretty cautious in our race. I heard some guys got hurt really bad and I hope they all heal OK. I think the people that did wreck yesterday were somewhat newbies to crashing, so as everyone goes through this experience, they can re-evaluate their racing strategies and plan their moves more carefully. Anyways…
Race is on and it was pretty zippy. The field got strung out a couple of times and we took some corners there with quite some heat. The start finish line we would see the occasional 34mph and that was into the headwind, so it had a good pace. BUT it was MUCH slower than last year.
Race goes on and people try out breaks. They are all caught. I do some work here and there, nothing crazy, just seeing how my constant tired body would feel and surprisingly I was OK. Looking at the numbers I was quite pleased as this was the highest wattage crit I have done all year. 290 watts average for the whole race, including coasting and all, so it was a good effort.
I felt pretty good and was a bit bummed out that I did not place or at least help teammates place. I think I had one more match, but moving to the front at the cost of causing a crash or making a stupid move was just not an option, so I help position and passed cooked riders.
All in all it was a great race. I hope they can keep this one.
For all the guys that crashed out there, good luck getting things together and heal up quickly. I know I ALMOST went down in the final stretch and I almost ran over a bike. It was VERY close, I clipped it with my pedal, so I could have been there too.
See you guys next week – so great to have local races…. cheap transportation
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5 Responses to “Dana Point”
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I have to strongly disagree with you about the course. It was a terrible course for a championship race. The field size for my race (masters 35+ 1,2,3) was above 130 riders. This course should only have about half that to be considered safe. I was one of those “newbies” who crashed and was taken to the ER with a cracked vertebrae and other less serious injuries. When I left racing years ago I was a Cat 1 rider but was downgraded to a cat 2 because of my time away from racing but I do not think that qualifies me as a “newbie”. I always appreciate the race organizers and volunteers who help put on races but this course needs to be reevaluated.
Hey Chuck, I heard that THAT race in particular was a very scary one. I would agree that an oversized field would ruin any fun riding a bike in a course like that.
Maybe the harder technical course from last year shelled enough people to make it a safe race. Not sure.
I think your race was a CAT 1-4, so yeah, I see no reason for a CAT-4/3 to be in that race, no disrespect, but you are asking for trouble.
JH,
You were right, my field was 35+ 1-4. I should have paid attention to that. Putting cat 3′s and 4′s together with more experienced racers is asking for trouble. Lesson learned. I will stick to the pro 1-2 races for now on. Race organizers please for the sake of safety avoid putting 3′s and 4′s in races like that. It is not fair to them or to the more experienced riders. All the complaining aside, I still would like to thank them for putting on the race. Without the organizers and volunteers no racing would be possible.
I was in that race as well and it was very scary. Too many inexperienced riders, brake checks in every corner, desperate dashes for positioning on corners and guys chasing paper cups. All in all, too many people.
Sorry about the crash. Get well soon.
The Irony in excluding Cat3′s and 4′s is that you would exclude a lot of very good masters racers. I am a Cat3 and while I may not be as strong as many of the 1′s and 2′s, I can handle a bike better than almost 95% of them. I have several friends that are Masters State Champions and they are 3′s or 4′s. My ability to ride in the pack is what keeps me in those races. So we can’t very well exclude all the 3′s.
4′s…Probably a good idea.