Snelling Raod Race Cat 3 Women

Snelling Raod Race Cat 3 Women
Michele Heaton

Unfortunately, this race turned out to be one of those races I didn’t enjoy, and I was very lucky to end up rolling across the line on 2 wheels, instead of in an ambulance. I liked the course, but the way we raced was boring as all heck. For some reason the flatter road races can be extremely slow and not dynamic in the Cat. 3 and 4’s. Most riders seem happy to ride conservatively and just wait for the finish. Maybe I don’t have the “winning” mentality but personally I love a race that has me mentally and physically challenged. I love to feel like I really stretched myself more than anything.


The race consisted of about 21 women. A few were active in pushing the pace in some sections, but most sat in the entire race. There were a couple of team mates but no major team dynamics. My plan was to practice attacking to see if I could split the group and try to make it a harder, safer race. I rode 1 lap to check out the riders, course, turns, wind, pavement, etc. On the end of the second lap I went hard on the finish hill to string out the group.

Me on the front applying pressure

Everyone lined up and stayed in. Next I tried attacking on a slight riser in a tailwind section. I got a gap and saw that Joanne from Bike Station was bridging. I slowed slightly to allow her to get on my wheel so we could work together but soon after the entire group was on her wheel. On the 3rd lap I attacked on the biggest riser in the race (not very big.) This time Courtney from Bike Station chased me down and I kept on the gas, taking the chicane and looking back seeing they were all single file but catching us. I don’t seem to have this attack thing down yet.

I did get countered and that was probably the hardest I had to work in the race. After that I became pretty complacent and just sat at the back waiting for it to end. At the finish I came around the final corner too far back, was speeding up the right side when a rider quickly swerved to the right and inadvertantly “body checked” me and sent me flying off the road. I was trying desperately to stay upright heading straight into the back of a van and thinking “Oh my God, I’m going to crash head on into that van at full speed!” Luckily, I stayed upright and was able to both miss the van and get back over the asphault edge without going down. Not a fun race and a very close call.

I learned it’s not a good idea to come up from the rear with a lot of speed at the end of a race. I would have done better to have used all that energy to get in a more forward position, or to have done consecutive, harder, longer or more decisive attacks, which I now wish I had, especially because this race didn’t even qualify as good training.

Checking my power tap, the result was 25 minutes at Threshold and above, 1 hour of Endurance and 1 1/2 hours in RECOVERY. No wonder we were neutralized over 10 times! Also, one rider got a flat during the roll out, fixed it, chased us for 1 lap, caught us and still got 4th place. Good for her, at least she got a good work out.

Snelling Road Race, 45+ 1/2/3

By Dennis Pedersen

I love this course, 4 laps on 11.7 miles of small country roads in the rolling Sierra foothills north of Merced, and signed up for my third time. But, February weather can be messy and, as in past years, I kept checking the miserable-looking forecasts up until Friday afternoon. At that point the forecast changed from "Rain and snow showers. Highs in the upper 30s and lows in the low 30s" to "Mostly Sunny, 50° high, Chance of Precip: 10%, Wind: NNW at 11 mph." That forecast, and carpooling with Bob (racing 45+ 4/5), was enough to get me to commit to race.

I picked up Bob in Watsonville, after scraping ice off my windshield, but there was no sign of rain so we were optimisitic that we weren't driving 3 hours just to get hypothermia. We even stopped for breakfast in Merced. It was a bit cool, but with gorgeous sunshine.

Neither of us had teammates to race with so we both knew we had to race conservatively to do well. The race always starts with a 1.5-mile neutral roll-out which is all the warmup I need. So we both suited up in our new team kits and lined up for our 12:40 and 12:50 start times. New for 2011, we have timing chips mounted on our bikes (see photo).

I knew from my past races that I needed to be near the front to watch for attacks. The other times I raced here the win went to breakaways and I was determined not to miss any. But this year the wind was a little less strong and from the west... that would change my tactics a bit. I won the field sprint in 2008 by sprinting early and the tailwind this year would make that more important.

As soon as the motorcycle referee signalled our race start two guys, one from Team Bicycles Plus (I think Lance Newey), attacked hard into the wind. In seconds they were 200m ahead of us. But they never gained more than maybe 20 seconds on us and were caught a mile or two later. A few others wisely tried attacks on the back section of the course where we had a tailwind, but they also were caught.

Just after we started the second lap, Bill Dunham (Alto Velo) attacked solo and opened up a nice gap. He held it for a while and a few other guys took turns bridging up to him. Some dropped back, only to be replaced by others, and it turned out this break stayed ahead of us for the next 2.5 laps. I never joined it because I had reason to believe they wouldn't last.

• The lack of strong winds encouraged us to work together and prevented cross-wind sections from giving the small groups an advantage.


• Their lead never grew beyond about 20 seconds.


• The large teams were not generally represented in the break, so I thought they would chase them down later.

I was right: On our last lap we were just behind the break and toyed with the catch. But we were also staying as fresh as possible for the finish, so we'd get close then back off. I kept riding conservatively while also working to stay near the front, only once or twice taking a short pull at the front. On the back section Jess Raphael and John Laine (both Safeway) took several strong pulls at the front reducing the gap to maybe 100m. But we couldn't rest yet, and others started to lend a hand in the effort.

I knew I needed to be near the front. I was doing well, but after we caught the break, maybe 1km from the finish, we slowed and soon the pack jammed across the whole road making it hard to advance. Then a surge started as we approached the last turn of the race; a hard right turn leading onto the 300m, slight uphill to the finish line. I was in the wind a bit, and somewhat blocked, so it took a few seconds before I could respond. Then Michael O'Rourke (Safeway) jumped all-out before the turn, just as I had planned to do but couldn't because of my poor positioning.

By the time I got around that last turn I was already well behind the leaders. But I also knew the sprint was 40 seconds long, so I just set a hard, steady pace up the slight hill, passing guys along the way who went too hard, too soon. I was actually able to gain on the three guys behind O'Rourke, but ran out of room and finished 5th, so I was still pretty jazzed! And now I have another masterpiece T-shirt.

Bob and I were both pretty happy about our races and very happy we got to enjoy such unexpectedly pretty weather. Next weekend we'll be back in that area for the Merco Foothills Road Race. I am looking forward to it!

Snelling Road Race, 45+ 1/2/3

By Dennis Pedersen

There was a crash somewhere to my left, the only one in our race, when a guy rode his bicycle off the shoulder of the road. I looked ahead for other problems and instead saw that the winning break of about seven or eight guys had just split off from our front. Every race has it's decisive moment, and that was ours, just minutes after our race had started.

I didn't know that break was the winning move yet, of course, but I knew from prior experience here that it could be. They had chosen well: The south-west corner of the generally flattish course, in the Sierra's gentle foothills, where several short hills and sharp turns opened up opportunities for gaps to form. Several thoughts went through my head:

• Could I bridge the gap up to them?
• Which teams were represented in the break?
• Which other teams would work to catch the break?
• Would the break work well together?
• How strong were the guys in the break?

I started to move up, as that would help me answer those questions, but soon came to a stop behind a bunch of guys blocking us at the front of our main group (now a chase group). It looked like Safeway, VOS and Morgan Stanley all had riders in the break and their teammates were working to hold the rest of us back. I didn't know who else, or which riders, were up ahead, but I knew enough to know it didn't look good for Mike Sudbrink and I.

When faced with the decisive moment, decisive action is required. What did I do? I waited. I had lots of reasons: Too early. Too tired. Too slow. Somebody else will take the initiative. But what I should have done was turn myself inside-out to catch that break, consequences be hanged. Waiting just increased the gap.

The next two-plus laps were spent on frustrating attempts to form chase groups, but nothing much materialized. The motorcycle ref called out the time gap: I heard "1:12" and "1:21" at various times. I felt certain we could catch them in this 50-mile race if we tried, but only sporadic pacelines formed. Me, a guy from Davis Bike Club and a guy from Team Bicycles Plus were the only ones to consistently make any effort... and the blockers did their usual good job of disrupting our attempts and sowing the seeds of doubt (their smack-talk just made me laugh though!). And we also had some poorly-timed neutralizations when we got passed by some Pro/1/2 racers, forcing us to ease off for several minutes at a time. At other times we neutralized other racers and one time I was the tip of the arrow as we passed a large group from a different race category.

On the last lap VOS suddenly went from blocking to pushing the pace way up, taking turns really pounding. As if attacking or, more likely, trying to bridge up to the break. Huh? What was up? I wasn't sure, but I had a hunch their man in the break, James Allen, had been dropped or flatted. I went with each attempt and they got shut down pretty well; I knew to mark Jan Elsbach especially, who I know can solo pretty well. At one point I floated off the front and I asked Jon Ornstil, in passing, "what happened, did you lose your man?" but he didn't reply. Instead he had an uncharacteristic look of panic on his face.

We really hammered the last half of the last lap but I didn't think we'd catch the break. I was pretty sure the break still had at least 6 guys in it, and I really didn't want to sprint for 7th place. 7th wouldn't get me anything, no upgrade points, not even a T-shirt. So as we approached the last turn, where I won the field sprint for 6th last time, I just sat up and let the field pass me. No sense in risking a crash. I rolled over the finish line in 33rd, and it turned out VOS only took 9th, so I'm happy I didn't bother.

The result was disappointing, no denying it. I honestly believe this race suits me, and I really hoped for much more. But I love the gorgeous rural course, the spring-time weather was awesome, and it was really neat getting to race with Mike; he's a great guy and a real legend. This was his first race back in a long time and I hope we get to race some more. Russ Cadwallader and John Marshall (our new Nevada teammate) couldn't make it due to illness, but what a team we will make when we all can be there, ready for action. I look forward to that!

Snelling RR

Too keep things short, I’ll skip over the pre-race and first two laps at Snelling where I followed along with Ed working hard to stay with the main group through the hard pace. When he flatted in the heavy crosswind section the pace was really high and I was able to stick on the back. I felt bad about leaving him, but he yelled at me to keep on it, so I did. The next 1.5 laps was a mix of blocks and minor attacks by various groups. The last lap saw the pace pick up again and split the field a bit. I was in the back group with 6-7 others but we were able to work together well enough to get back to the front group who had slowed down. For the last 2 miles going into the rough straightaway and final right hand turn the pace slowed way down, and the field stretched out into a large line in the right gutter providing no hiding spot from the wind. I began moving up on the right side of the others, sitting in the wind and getting ansy for something to happen… We had less than 1km to the finish, so instead of waiting I tried attacking. I got into the first turn in the lead, and then remembered how long the finishing straight was. The 63 miles of hard pace and cold headwinds caught up to me before the finish line did and I made it to about 100M before I started getting passed. I still finished ahead of some of the group, so it wasn’t all for nothing.

I was pretty toasted before I attacked, and I know I should have made a little harder effort initially to get a bigger gap, but I just didn’t have it in the end. Still, I would do it again as killing yourself for first is more rewarding than cruising into second. Final result says 21st, so not to bad for hard early season race (long one for me too) and full field of 100 racers.

This was also a great time to scope out some of the competition as this was my first race as at Cat 4, and I managed to spot a couple guys who appear strong and I'll be watching them the next couple races.

Next up, back to the same area on Sunday for Merco RR, then my first crit of the year, Menlo Park GP (and I’ve got friends/family coming to watch!!!! Extra incentive!)