Race Report: Poor College Kids RR, Sat Jan 31

My apologies if this race report seems a little mish-mashed, but I’m cutting it close to some homework deadlines in order to get this done. However, writing race reports is actually a very productive activity because the Swami’s team like supports me a lot and all that good stuff.

So, moving on, this past Saturday the DET headed out to Santa Barbara for the Poor College Kids RR. While it was my first race of 09, it was the second for Corey, Daggs, and Alex who had raced Long Beach a week prior. I was super nervous about racing again and considering my well-known history of crashing in Santa Barbara County (the place is cursed I swear) I had good reason to be cautious. But the nervousness was good because it got me being first rider to the start line of the P 1,2 (excellent photo opportunity). The course was an out and back, mainly flat-ish, with a nice gradual climb out, then a not-so-nice steep/pitchy climb on the return route, and headwinds galore. Not too much of a magnificent send off at the start, but off we were, and then soon enough after following a few accelerations I looked back and found myself in my very first break-away of the year!!! And I had only been racing but 5 minutes!!! Excitement turned to resent as I began to realize that the move was doomed so I did what I could to sit in. One match burned. After being reeled back, I changed my game plan to holding my position near the front and following all the good wheels. I kept an eye out for the Liquigas guy, and then I noticed the Cervelo Test Team dude roll by, and then, oh, I must have forgot to mention the 18 Team Type 1 guys in the race, who all looked exactly the same (annoying). I followed some wheels, closed a few gaps, and then missed the Liquigas guy, Aaron Olsen and three other TT1 guys roll away at the top of the gradual climb and then proceeded to take a “breather break”. Four more matches burned. I spent the rest of the first lap doing what I could to make stuff happen. Daggs and I were being pretty active at the front during a hard session in the cross winds all the while hoping that something would separate itself from the pack, but the TT1 guys, acting as though they were going to win the race or something, decided to play hardball and stop anything from rolling away. Daggs was working well with Jason and I on his wheel until he made the mistake of getting pushed a bit too close to the edge of the road and was then forced to hit the emergency eject button. No worries, all rubber was kept on the side of down and he soon rejoined the group at the back, with a noticeably large amount of dignity gone missing. And the race kept rolling. The pitchy climb on the way back was fast. Ten thousand more TT1 guys rolled off the front at the top of the climb. The DET, however, missed out on the move because it kinda hurt, a lot. We rounded past the start/finish out for the last lap and headed up the gradual climb again. I decided to be smart about it this time and saved some energy until the top of the climb. Once we hit the false flats at the top I saw that the move was leaving the group and I made an acceleration to latch onto the back. What seemed to be my most promising opportunity of the race was quickly shut down and I was relegated back to my mid-pack position. Which brings me to a total of 12 matches burned. At this point, Alex decided to hit the front, hard. The break was within eyesight when we hit some of the longer sections of road and there seemed like a good chance it might come back. 3 more matches burned. It never happened, the breakaway guys proceeded to turn on the jet engines when they saw that the pack was getting close at the turn around. The last half lap to the finish line was fast as the riders lined out the group leading up to the bottom of the final pitchy climb. The pack fractured on the climb and a couple strong groups made it to the top. Corey and Jason were there in the mix and rolled into a fast finish. Jason decided it would be a great idea to make his move at 2 km from the finish. Of course, he had forgotten just exactly how incredibly far away 2 km was and quickly got reeled back in. Corey stayed strong to be our best finisher of the day with Jason a few riders back and then me a little while later and then Alex and Daggs. In my own case, seeing that I had only brought a 24 pack of matches along for the ride, my ass was toast mid-way up the last climb and I did what I could to out-sprint the other two guys who had rolled into the finish with me (awesome photo opportunity). Of course, pay no attention to the results because according to SoCalCycling.com I no longer ride for the Swami’s, but have since been traded to some unknown team along the Canadian River called CRRC. At the finish TT1’s infamous climber/sprinter dude named Ricardo Escuela took the win with his teammate behind him in second. Oh! and by the way, Gord Fraser (former domestic pro and current TT1 director-and Tour de France participant) had tagged along for the race and was nice enough to give me some compliments on the matchingness of my Swami’s bike/kit combo. He seemed suuper jealous. I could sense it.


Hasta la proxima!
Rob Carr