Bariani Road Race

Field – E4

Riders: 75

Teammates: Robert, Joe, Conan

This was my first road race of the year, and I was feeling confident because my legs have been feeling great lately. It’s a mostly flat course, with a few small rollers, and a couple of bumpy single-lane sections. I lined up with Robert, Joe, and Conan, and 71 others, and we started off into a strong headwind. No one was willing to do too much pulling into the wind, so we rolled along at around 20 mph. It was fairly easy hiding in the pack. Once we rounded the corner, the pace picked up and I found myself and my teammates a little bit further back in the large group than I thought we should be. The wind was coming from the left at this point and so there was room to move up. I rode up the side and took some wind and called for Robert and Joe to come with me up towards the front. We got to the front and started rotating with a few guys from some other teams and ramped the pace up.

I looked back and noticed that the field was strung out, and that it was something like 8 riders pulling through at the front with everyone else following. Since Robert and Joe are strong, and there were a few other fast looking guys with them, I figured it might be useful if they got away. At the very least, it would cause some excitement in the field and get others burning matches, so I decided to slowly gap off of the front rotating group after my next pull. They got a bit of separation for a little while, but eventually after some surges from the group behind, we all came back together in the tailwind section.

I had some trouble picking the sheltered side of the field during the crosswind sections, so I made sure to take of which side I needed to come out of each corner for the next 3 laps. Once I figured that out it was quite a bit easier to save my energy.

A couple of attacks went and came back for the next couple of laps, but nothing particularly threatening. Again the headwind section was where no one wanted to do any work, so I took note of that for later. We rolled around for another couple of laps, with not much going on except for some surges during the tailwind sections. Joe and Robert did some good work keeping the pace high at the front.

As we rolled by the start/finish line to begin the last lap, I noticed Rob and Joe on the front of the pack with no one wanting to come around, so I moved up and joined them. I decided that since it’s early season, I might as well test the legs a bit, and maybe give my teammates a good excuse to sit up and take it easy for a while, so I went for an attack. I jumped out of the saddle and pushed hard for 15 seconds or so, and then tried to settle into a hard rhythm. The headwind was brutal. I looked back to see if it had any effect, and saw that I had two riders on my wheel. At first, I thought maybe I didn’t go hard enough and the whole group followed. However, as I pulled off and let them through, I realized I was in a break with rider each from Alto Velo and UC Davis.

AV had a big presence in the peloton with 10 riders, so I figured we should give it a go. The UC Davis rider proved to be stronger than the two of us, however, as each time he pulled through getting on his wheel didn’t provide much respite from the headwind. AV and I suggested that we settle into an easier rhythm, but he didn’t slow up. We kept going and passed a neutralized masters field that we had been gaining on (it felt pretty cool to pass a whole field as part of a breakaway 🙂 ). As we approached the corner, the AV rider dropped off, and I was trying my best to recover and get some shelter. We rounded the corner, but the Davis rider would not let up. At this point, having lost the member from the largest team in the bunch, and being fairly gassed myself, I sat up and let my breakaway mate go on without me.
I saved my strength and got back into the Peloton and tried to get into recovery mode to regain my strength for a sprint finish. The Davis rider was caught a few minutes later and it was gruppetto compacto again.

As we got to the finishing straight, the pace dropped again in the headwind, but with increased aggression with riders trying to get in position for a sprint. The group was spread all the way across the road, with everyone wanting to be a just a few wheels back from the wind. Riders were bumping and sudden lateral moves were happening every few seconds. Though my legs were starting to burn I was confident that I had plenty left for the finish, but just as we got near the 500m to go line, I saw a snowball of bike parts and limbs just ahead of me and managed to skid to a stop at the back of the carnage. It looked like roughly 10-12 riders went down. Unfortuantely, Joe, Robert, and Conan all got caught up in the wreck. I waited until they were able to get medical attention and their bikes were picked up, and then rolled across the line. I think we were all in a pretty good position, and I’m certain we would have had a good result for the team had there not been a pileup. Hoping for speedy and complete recoveries for my teammates and all the others caught up in the crash, and I am looking forward to racing together again soon.

Distance: 56.3 mi
Time: 2:27
Avg Speed: 23.0 mph
NP: 222w