7/06/97
I had a pretty big racing weekend. Big in the number of races I entered (2), not in my results.
Me and Don planned to race the Joe Matava Criterium and then the Freemont Criterium. Later, we found out that the Freemont Crit is for Cat. 3 and above. This didn't matter all that much, as it was cancelled anyways.
I woke up at 4:30 AM and rode my bike down to Don's house to carpool to the Joe Matava Crit. Don had raced the Thursday Seward Criterium, but I passed on it, because we were planning to race Friday and Saturday.(As it turned out, I raced Friday and Sunday.)
We arrived in Burien before they had finished setting up the registration desk. The course was nicely laid out, and the portable restrooms were the cleanest I have ever seen. And numerous, to boot. Alan Petrie and Mike, two regulars at the Seward races were there. I asked them about the Washington State Road Racing championships they went to, and they told me it was very, very tough. Alan got 9th, Mike DNF'd, and a guy they went up there with ended up winning. They said about 40 people started, and 11 people finished. Hills, wind, and heat.
The race was very fast. It was 45 minutes long. I was lapped 4 times, a new record for me. I'm going to have to change my tactics in criteriums. Since I figure I'll be slow anyway, I end up starting at the back, and falling off the pack. I think this Thursday, I'll try to start in the front of the pack, so I can slow down a bit in the middle of the race and still be in the pack.
I did a very easy training ride on Saturday morning. I rode out to the regular Saturday meeting spot and waited for 10 minutes, but no one showed. The weather was pretty bad. Later, I learned that David (Sarruf) went there at around 9:15 AM. I just missed him, but I was planning on riding very easy anyways.
I decided to do the Crystal Mountain State Hill Climb TT championships on a whim. I figured it'll be good to get a time on such a course so I can compare it with the results in the following years. I was going to carpool with Michael Petty, but he was going to visit some friends afterwards, so I decided to drive myself. Lan did not want to wake up so early. I got there in plenty of time, but everyone was milling about trying to find the registration area. It was at the top of the hill. For some reason, Mike never showed.
The weather looked very bad in the morning when I left my house, and stayed kind of wet and got really rainy as I approached Crystal Mountain, but in the last mile or so, it got totally clear and sunny, although it was a bit chilly because of the fact we were up in the mountain. It was the first time I was there since I went skiing two years ago. The weather stayed pretty good until the ride back, when it got rainy again...
I was planning on trying to beat 35 minutes, a time that was near the bottom but not too far off according to last year's results. When I started and got to about half way, I was trying hard to finish under 1 hour. As it turned out, the hill climbing stopped after about 5 miles of the approximately 7 miles of the climb. The total elevation gain is supposed to be about 1500 feet.
My time was 38 minutes and about 40 seconds. Probably one of the slower times for the time trial. They were weighing people with and without their bikes at the finish line. I was 200lbs with bike, 180 without. I glanced at the sheet they had, and I only saw one other rider and bike over 200lbs, and that person was 210lbs. Maybe I'll get a decent time/weight ratio. I won't know, because I left before the results were posted, because the USCF official was taking too long to calculate times. Besides this little slowness, the organization and the officiating was pretty good. I'll look up my results on their (Wheelsport Cycling Team) web page.