Ride Sally Ride/Leonardtown -- 4 race criterium weekend (or why are we up at 5am?) & Nice Teamwork Pays Off

James Jake & Andy riding the train (photo by Pam)

 The chase/quest for upgrade points reached its zenith this weekend.  With just 2 weekends left before Junior Nationals, if Jake was going to get to Cat 3 to qualify for the Road Race & Crit at Nationals (for 15-16 they have to be Cat 3) he would need some results this weekend.  He was not alone.  James Panagiotopolous was also perilously close (James is a great kid and I love his parents).  On Saturday was "Ride Sally Ride" in Chantilly and on Sunday would be Leonardtown, down in southern Maryland.  We had done both of these last year, and you can see those discussions in my old blog here.

For Ride Sally Ride, Loren's dad, Jack, and his wife, Susan, came to visit so they could see Jake race.  The Chantilly location and spectator friendly crit format would be great for their intro to racing.

From a "soigneur dad" perspective, this weekend was ugly.  Jake would do both the Junior and Cat 4 races both days.  But promoters hate juniors (or their parents) and so have junior races at 8am.  So, to get to these races in time to register and warm up, Jake and I left the house at 6:15 on Saturday and.....5:30 on Sunday.  Ugh.  I simply expected not to ride at all this weekend.

Ride Sally Ride
(Jake realized as we left, that the road at the office park is called "Sally Ride Drive" thus the race name)

For the junior race, a couple of the older HPC juniors, Justin Mauch and Matt Amman, came to add some horse power to the team, which was really great of them.  The plan was for them to help James and Jake to high results so they could score upgrade points.  Andy Fleming, Luke, and Jacob were all there to add to the effort and of course see if they couldn't land themselves a high placing as well.  (Andy needs the points as well, but isn't as close to Cat 3 as Jake and James due to some flats/crashes/bad luck).  Justin took the lead at the meeting in the parking lot.

Justin instructs the troops (photo Pam Mauch)

 It was a big group of juniors, over 40.  Lots of strong riders.  Here's a little video of the line up (notice how only Devon Baumer of ABRT breaks his game face and waves; Devon's a great kid)

And the HPC boys (Jake was in his MABRA BAR jersey -- free entry!)

James is smiling for a reason (photo by me)

Justin drilled it from the start, then Matt attacked, it has just attack after attack.  Jake and James were to do no work to save it for the sprint or get in the right break with Justin or Matt. 

Luke did some nice work controlling attacks (notice Jake & James sheltered) (photo Pam Mauch)

With about 5 laps to go, Justin launched an attack and brought James with him.  This was the winning move.  They gained a gap of 10 seconds or so.  There were some attempts to chase but Rock Creek Velo and ABRT couldn't organize to close it down (note all the lapped younger juniors, which made it tricky). 

Justin and James held it out and James rolled across the winner.  (Justin had the GoPro handlebar video camera rolling, which you can see here)

Right behind Jake got 2nd in the field sprint for 4th overall. (As usual, turn down the sound to avoid my "go jake" yelling)

I joked that Justin should have slammed on his brakes and not crossed the line ("oh, cramp!") so Jake could get 3rd.  But the 4th was worth 2 upgrade points so that's good.  James' win gave him 19 total points (I thought that's what someone said).

photo by Doug Graham 

Jake, Andy, and James then lined up for the Cat 4 race and hour later. This was 90+ crazed MABRA Cat 4s.  An entirely different and much scarier animal.  Andy started off with a bang, immediately jumping into a 2 man breakaway for a couple of laps

As he said after the race, maybe not the smartest move, intellectually, but they're fun.  Jake rode well, generally keeping up toward the front.  James and Andy likewise kept good position as these photos by Doug show.

Andy, James, Jake across the front (photo Doug Graham)

Well positioned (Doug Graham)

James & Jake (D. Graham)

a boy amongst men (D. Graham)

solid through the turn (D. Graham)

Thanks to Doug Graham for the photos, which you should check out at HERE

Ok, so I may have yelled at Jake to "move up" once or twice, so with like 3 laps to go he literally turned and yelled at me to "shut up" which was funny.

Watching your kid in this kind of churning mass is very nerve-wracking.  So here's what we saw as they came into the final turn/sprint (seriously, turn down the sound)

and here it is captured.  Notice Jake on the left diving to the inside of the crash.

photo Doug Graham

Jake was 6th out of 100, which was awesome.  Unfortunately, because USA Cycling doesn't give crits as much credit, it was worth 1 point.  We joked he's getting his upgrade 1 point at a time (9th at Poolesville, 1pt; 9th at Tucker County, 1pt; 6th at Walton Park, maybe 1pt depending on how many starters).

So, Saturday evening Liam has a baseball game, and then we went out to Carlisle (restaurant) for dinner after, but the restaurant screws up and we have to wait an hour, so we don't eat until after 8.  But remember how I said Jake and I have to leave at 5:30am the next morning.  Ugh.

Leonardtown.

Right, so, my alarm goes off at 5:05, I shake/wake Jake, fill 6 bottles of water & 2 w/ EFS, grab clif bars to eat in the car, and we throw everything back in the car, and head off to Leonardtown, in St. Mary's county, 1.5 hours away.  The town is very nice, and the drive is actually very easy at that time of morning.  This was the regional crit championship for Category 1, 2, 3, and 4, so it's a big race.  It's also a fun course.  However, I didn't bring any media equipment and my Blackberry battery was dying, so no videos or photos.  The team would be Jake, James, Luke, and Andy Mount would be the Cat 3 crit powerhouse who made a last minute decision to come help, which as great of him (and let's face it, his mom, who got up at 5am to drive). 

A photo for Loren, the yarn store at the start/finish line

 Again it was an aggressive race, and at one point there was a break with Jake, James, and Andy, and 2 boys from RCV.  I thought that would be it, but they didn't quite work and Tanner Browne and an ABRT boy were able to get back to the group (which was nice work by them).  Jake threw in an attack with 3 laps to go (which I still don't think was the best for him given how much racing was in his legs at that point), but it didn't stick.  In the final lap, Andy was able to launch James with 1/2 lap to go and James held it for another win.  The sprint was close on his heels though.  Zander Guzy-Sprague (real name) from RCV took 2nd (securing his trip to nationals) and Jake took 4th behind Andy.  Tanner was close on his wheel for 5th in a nice race by him.  The big question was how many juniors started.  BikeReg says 21 so I'm going with that (the results never say how many starters, only finishers), so that should be another 2 points.  I was hoping he could win the Jr at Leonardtown, but it wasn't to be (he didn't have the snap he had on Saturday).  I'm glad James won. 

ok, but now the Cat 4 race wasn't until 2pm, so we had 5 hours to kill.  I gave Jake $20 and told him to get something to eat at the cafe there on the square.  In the meantime, Dan Klaussen and I went for a ride out in the local countryside.  Well, there's an hour or so.

At noon, Jake and I sat in some rocking chairs in front of a local shop and watched Andy in the Cat 3 race.  He really is a natural crit rider.  The attacks were hot and heavy from the start.  Andy was in the first break, then there was a break with 2 riders that lasted several laps and forced a serious chase.  When the catch was made around mid-race, I saw Andy, who had been near the back (Jake had even mentioned he thought Andy was in trouble he was so far back) -- slingshot up the side of the group.  I thought he was just shooting past the lull to move forward in the group, but he was attacking and when they came back around he and 3 others had a gap.  Those 4 got a good gap that moved up close to 20 seconds.  A guy from C3 and my friend Neil from DC Velo both tried to bridge the gap.  The C3 guy made it, Neil went back to the pack.  The 5 man break established a nearly 50 second lead and they were secure.  Andy was solid in the break and took 3rd.  So, that was great.

For the Cat 4s, we didn't know what legs Jake would have, so if he was spent we discussed pulling out rather than risking crashes or fatigue.  It was 60+ guys. 

The only Coppi was Eric Bloomquist, who you'll remember was such a great teammate to Jake in the Cat 3 cross race at Schooly Mill.  I told them both not to get caught up in early break attempts, but to look for them starting mid race.  I sat on a bench at start/finish and talked with a former teammate, Patrick Dolan.  It really helped what would otherwise have been a very nervous hour for me.  It was pretty hard from the gun, with a solo breakaway requiring a long chase by the field.  Jake held very good position, and by the final laps he was well positioned in the only 15-20 guys who remained.  A solo rider from GW had established a decent gap that he held for the win.  Right after the start/finish on the bell lap there was a crash, with one guy going down.  Jake had been 5th wheel, but he said the crash caused confusion and surging and he got shuffled back.  He didn't have the legs to move back up in the last 1/2 lap, so was stuck sprinting in the back of the group, taking 14th.  No points, and no top 10 (you can upgrade with 10 top-10s, this would have been his 9th top 10 this spring).  Damn. 

Still, he rode a very solid race, particularly for his 4th in 2 days.  But he was exhausted (and so was I).

This morning I submitted his upgrade request.  Fingers crossed.