Pro XCT #1 - Bonelli Park

[Jim Hewett]

I made the trip down to Southern California last weekend for the first of the national pro series races.  These races are the real deal, with close to one hundred pros from around the country.  This is where you test yourself against the fastest guys in the country (and Canada and Mexico).  A huge start group, short laps, and lots of fast guys makes the dynamic very different than local races.  You fight your way through the throngs in the beginning and then settle in to do battle for as many laps as you can (as soon as you drop more than 20% behind the first place racer, you are pulled).  UCI points are on the line, so all of the big guys are there.  Everyone is chomping at the bit and ready to get the season under way!

I was able to preride for a couple of days prior to the race.  The course was interesting.  Very short (3 miles) and punchy.  No long climbs, but no long rests either.  Kind of choppy - they even added rocks and logs to spice it up.  Problem is, they added these things on climbs or right before sharp turns.  They contributed to the lack of flow rather than providing dynamic technical obstacles.  Everything was very dry, and there were some duffy bermed turns and some off camber loose turns.  There was a paved section at the start and through the start/finish on every lap.

We would be doing 7 laps (!) after a short loop to start.  This start loop was supposed to help break us up before the first dirt climb and singletrack descent, but there was little elevation change on it.  Just about everyone in my class can go hard on the flats for 3 minutes, so it was not a good opportunity to move up too much.

The weather would be about perfect.  70 degrees and overcast.  I did a hot lap on one of my prerides in around 15min 45sec, so 16 minute laps would be realistic for me.  My friend RJ came over from LA to provide support and bottle feeds.  We didn't  start until 1:30, so I was able to sleep in and eat a big breakfast before the race.  I don't miss the 8:00 starts we had in semi-pro! 

The racers with UCI points were positioned at the start in order, and the posted lineup after that was decided randomly.  I got the shaft from Lady Luck, starting on the last row of 10 rows.  There were some friends around, as Will Curtis was just in front of me in his first national Pro race.  Some of my competition at local events were 3 or 4 rows ahead, with Kevin Smallman and Clint Claasen getting a little luckier in the callup.

There was the usual lag for the racers in the back at the start, and we were off!

I tried my best to move up on the short start loop.  I maybe got up 15 places by the time we passed the start/finish and began the first of our 7 laps.  We hit the first short-but-steep fireroad climb and I was stuck behind a wall of traffic.  I was ready to stand and hammer this part, but it was not an option.  On the subsequent singletrack descent, we were all on our brakes at about half speed.  Remember that the first 10-20 guys on the course are all hammering hard without the traffic while we try to work it out in the back.  These are the guys that set the time for the 20% rule and affect whether we get pulled or not.

Things began to shake out a little, and I gained one position after another.  I felt pretty good on the first couple of laps, hammering on the short, steep climbs and recovering on the fast descents.  My second lap was 15m 47s, and my third was 15m 59s.  I began to see some racers I knew ahead, and started to close the gap.  I moved up about 10 places on lap 3 to almost catch Smallman and Claasen, but decided to run a short technical section instead of ride it.  They put some distance in there and through the next descent to get out of sight.  I started to feel the hard efforts in my legs, and my lap times increased to 16m 19s and then 16m 41s by the fifth.  I saw a group of racers I had been chasing standing around before the start/finish and knew that this was the end of my race.  The UCI official pulled me and my race was over.  We all talked and cheered our friends still racing for another couple of laps.  It was pretty cool to look out over the course and see the fastest guys trying so hard, standing and hammering climbs I had been reduced to sitting and spinning.

This was the first time I have been pulled from a race due to the 20% rule.  It probably had something to do with the increase in amount of laps and decrease in lap distance.  This will be a continuing trend in the Pro races, so I guess I should get used to it.  I raced for 5 full laps, 1hr 23min, Average Heartrate 165bpm, Average Speed 10.8mph, 14.95 miles.

Final result - 45th out of 80 starters.

Hopefully they will use these results for the callup at Fontana in a couple of weeks! 

 

[Carl Sanders]

Bum luck on the start order. Fighting traffic is a good way to get out of rhythm and fatigue early. Either-way, great report on what it's like to be on the inside at a national event.