weekend race reports [4 - 5 july 2009]

[Davis Crit report]
Full Field, L shaped course.
Good and fast sustained pace. Had a bad start, it took a few laps to move to the front where I wanted to be. Sat up there fine until the pace grew towards the end. My legs were fried from Leesville the day before and mentally I don’t think I had much business being there. 20 guys or so got pulled from falling off the back and there was a good crash half way through which Ryan narrowly avoided. He finished about 10th (?) and I was somewhere behind him in the middle.
Lots of fun, not much suffering involved relative to the day before.
10 races done, I should move up to CAT 4’s here soon, time for cross season!!
[benjamin barry]

[Leesville Gap Road Race Report]
Leesville is hell, but hell is not nearly as bad when 15 degrees cooler and properly prepared. (although being prepared still isn’t good enough, as you will here later) First want to give a shout out to John and Sage because they were able to show up and race, john shook off a shift to make it and Sage came out and raced his first road race ever, although he is a natural and races in “A”s during cross season, so the most seasoned racer among us.

Leesville is one large 62 mile loop, that starts in farm land, climbs 1500 feet to drop you into a valley, then climb out and back to farm land for the longest 15 mile homestretch ever.
The race started with a mile neutral start, which pretty lasted the first 10 miles as we approached the climb. But once we the road pitched up a little, the road when it wasn’t dirt was worse, Pot holes and bumps and lumps. After the required shouting at each other bike handling skills the group settled into the approach. No real moves as we constantly passed downed riders fixing flats or clutching shattered carbon rims. Sage’s front dérailleur malfunctioned and first one dropped off but made it back to the pack in time for the climb.
Then the climb which is about 6-7% for 5km, This was the big test. Becher was riding in the front as the climb started, but we got strung out as the rest of the peloton did. Me and Kris were up in front, with rest of crew not far behind. Half way up I am starting to over cook and Kris flats, (second to drop) so I know I need to keep with the leaders cause I am the only one repping “LG” at the front. When we crest the hill, it is myself and 4 other guys. who form up quick and start cruising and we never look back.
Kris has fixed the flat in record time, and joins up briefly with Ben, they split ben going to get Sage and then power it, and Kris charging forward. Ben has his work cut out, trying to keep his fellow cyclo crosser from trouble.
Kris and John join briefly, before parting ways and both powering it home.
Meanwhile in my group, we have dropped 1 kid and established that 1 other was not going to work, but was going to hard to drop. Once we got to the flat that what we eventually did. At that point it was me and two other guys, one got 3rd in Copperopolis and the other is a pro mountain biker. However we took a wrong turn and the non worker is able to re-attach, and stay attached till the end. We sprinted but I was just out of gas, and had already pushed through cramping to just make it there. I ended up in 4th, which I feel good about.
Kris ended up around 9th
John was a few back
Ben and Sage were a few back from that maybe 18th

Felt good, ready for some more racing.
[ryan drobek]