Red Kite Crit #5
I feel like a donkey with a carrot hanging in front of my face. It doesnt matter how hard i work that thing isnt getting any closer to my mouth! haha Cat 3/4 STRAVA My friend Tyler "Killer" Kraus Is two points away from his 2 upgrade. So speaking with him before the start it was just the goal to get him to a win or at least podium. I honestly thought with the help that he was going to be getting from homies in the field that he was going to get it. There were multiple attacks at the start like usual. I was one of those attempts at the begging. Realizing that Tyler was no where to been seen up front i eased off the gas and chilled in the back. Nose bleeds back. Tyler, Tym Tsruda (Team Chica Sexy) and Zach (BRITEsport Gigaom Pistachios) came back a couple times to pow wow with us about a finish. The rest of the race was really just saving up energy for the last three laps.
(Alex Chiu im sure i owe you some money for pictures) So thats what we did. As two laps to go came around we moved up to top 10-12. The pace slightly picked up and of course like it usually happens the 3/4 field got shaky. Lines werent being realized and racers got more verbal. Our main objective was to get Tyler to the front at the last corner to the sprint. I messed up royally. I still feel bad. On the backside of the course where the head wind is worse i was attempting to draft the field on the outside. Didnt help our tactics at all. So second to last turn comes around and everyone starts to sprint. Im in horrible positioning breaking off from the shitty draft i had and trying my damnest to put my head down and muscle to bridge up to the front with Tym, Tyler, and Zach on my wheel. Last turn comes around. The field is already 10+ wheels deep. Tyler sling shots past me and has already missed his chance for a podium. i fluffed up my moves and cost him another weekends as a three. Ugh thats racing! Cat 2/3 STRAVA After stretching out and listening to my race mix in the car, Just really getting my head outta the slump i put it in at the end of the first race i was ready for the chase fest of the 2/3s. Fergus Tanaka and Dave Mesa (Team Chica Sexy) had rolled in for this one and they were both pumped! We hadnt spoken about any moves or anything just keep attacking the field any chance we had. Tym went. Got caught. Fergus went got caught. I stuck with Mesa and watched for a couple laps in the back to see which heavy guns were going to make a move.. But those couple of laps nothing happened haha! Deciding to move up and make the field work a bit was a good option. As i blasted to the front Fergus was on the oposite end drilling too! SO! Seeing he had my gas in his tank i backed off and attempted to slow the field down. Fergus and another Leopard/Soporo rider were off the front. Mesa had come up a couple laps later and was with me trying to give Fergus more time to power in the break. The field quickly figured out our stratagy and wasnt having any of it! So we got eaten up. I didnt notice but a lap later a group of five brridged up to Fergus and kept up with the break. So a seven man break was working about two minutes up from the field. I kept attacking the front of the field just to slow it down again for my boy Ferg. But there was one attack that some what worked in my favor! I attacked before the start/finish sprint. And looked back. I had a HUGE gap! so put my head down and drilled for two laps by myself.
I had no intention to catch up to Fergus and the other six riders in the break. I just didnt want to finish in the dumb bunch sprint with the field. SO! two laps of suffering solo. I was caught by Chris Flanagan (Leopard/Soporo), Alex Lockwood (Fusion Sport) and Jeff Buscheck (Fremont Bank Cycling Team).
(Chris Flanagan caught up righter after this snap) SO! we worked really fluffing hard! haha the pulls were a little unorganized but we seemed to have a system. The lap cards said five to go when we all got together and pushed the last laps with pretty much everything we had it seemed! Chris was cracking the whip! yelling at us to keep going it was really hard to hold on. Not gonna lie! But we all kept our cool and telling each other that we were killing it! haha Bell lap our crew was sitting pretty the field wasnt anywhere close to catching us and yeah we were all fighting for seventh place. ( a couple of guys from the break had fallen off). We were still pumped to be away from the field and working really hard to keep it that way. Coming around the second to last turn thats where the other guys really turned on the Nos and the sprint was early. Haha i really felt like i was gassed and almost gave up. Coming around the last turn though Jeff was in front of me looking back to see where i was. I had thought and even said "You got it man, Im done." But right after i said that and we were about 20 feet from the finish line. I TOTALLY TSRUDA'd him at the line and gor 9th! Fergus ended up taking the win and keeping the break away for pretty much the whole race! Hopefully all of the other Chicas including myself helped out by putting some sand into the machine.
haha sorry for the long winded report. But i was really happy with both races. The first one didnt go so hot but having a plan was the best part. And also having homies there that wanted to put a play into action. The 2/3 race was just fun as fuck. Yeah i didnt get any points this weekend but i learned a lot! Thats the main focus for any and all races ive done this whole season thus far. Is if i get some kind of information how to read races/racers then i cam away a wealthy man! Thanks again for all the support. Also! Erik Cho is a fucking bad ass photographer and im humbled that he captures my soul weekend after weekend! I must owe him hundreds of dollars in photographs!
