Santa Rosa Plate Racing!

[Jim Hewett]

Unable to participate in The Summit Shorty due to my reponsibilities as the guy in charge, I ventured up to Santa Rosa to check out the first of a 3 race dirt crit series at the Youth Community Park (Thursday evening 5/6, 5/13, 5/20) that Bikemonkey is starting. I'm a big fan of the Howarth Park Dirt Crit series, which starts later in the summer, but this is a new course with which I am unfamiliar. The grassy and wooded open space area is behind a skatepark and kid's park and contains some neglected dirt jumps and overgrown trails and fireroads. This inaugural race saw the track a bit rough - erradically mown grass and bumpy dry dirt underneath. I rode about 10 laps of the .88 mile course to get a feel for the corners and a good warmup. There was not much climbing, but the choppy, grassy course made it hard to keep speed in places, even on the slight downhill sections. There was a twisty part through some of the dirt jumps that was fun to try to pump. The course ends on a flat fire road that will surely lead to some great sprint finishes.

I was glad to see two of the local hardmen show up, Glen Fant and Shane Bresnyan. I was looking for a good 40 minute workout and I knew these guys would help me push the pace. The A class started a little after 7:00 pm, with about 10 people toeing the line.

From the gun Shane, Glen and I made a break from the rest of the group. The course was quite fast, with average speeds around 16.5 mph, so some drafting tactics were definitely be involved. We used the first laps to check each other out on the climb and the corners, and by the third lap I decided to start punching it a little for effect. The Norcal duo was able to stay with me and seemed content with me doing the pace setting at the front. We did a few laps like that, trying to figure where we could make a move later. I noticed that the grassy and choppy downhill fireroad section just after the climb robbed you of speed very quickly. It took some pedalling to go as fast as you felt you should be going, and it was hard to pedal smoothly from the saddle on my hardtail. Glen and Shane, on their Specialized full suspension bikes, were easily able to stay on my wheel here. This could be a problem later. On lap 10, Shane tried to make a move around Glen and me here and accidentally took Glen down. We both slowed to let Glen back on and continued with the 3 car train.

I was starting to feel the effects of being at the front most of the race, but I was successfully hitting my target heartrate numbers. I tried to keep hammering, knowing I wasn't going to break these guys and they would make their move on the last lap.

As we started our final lap, #13, Shane poured it on through the start/finish area. He was pushing hard, almost sliding out once or twice on some grassy corners, but I was able to stay with him. I stood up and kicked 'er in the guts on the climb, almost getting around him right at the top. After this it was more chop to the grassy downhill, where Shane pulled away and glen moved around me into second. Everybody pushed it to the finish, with Glen and Shane finishing about 3 seconds ahead of me.

Pretty fun racing. The course should get a little smoother with use. I may not be able to get back up for the next 2 due to schedule conflicts, but I look forward to racing here in the future.

Time 41:35, Distance 11.48 miles, 522 feet of climbing, avg speed 16.6 mph, avg HR 176 bpm.