Long Beach Criterium july 23rd 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Long Beach Criterium
In Los Angeles temperatures throughout the weekend were really high. Valleys saw triple digits, with inland city’s and coastal areas feeling temperatures in the high 90’s. This made for a very hot crit out in the Long Beach area presented by Los Angeles Wings bicycle club.
This has always been one of my favorite courses to race on. My very first criterium happen at this very course when I was only 13 years old.
I arrived at the race just 30 minutes before the start and that was actually perfect timing because it was so hot, I really didn’t need to warm up.
At the start it was pretty funny, No one was at the start line. Every one was hiding in the shade trying to save as much energy as possible. And were off…Adam Livingston (successful living) attacks and hurts everyone for the first lap. Well, at least I was hurt.
Attacks would go and come back, lap after lap. 30 minutes in, Kyle Gritters (Health Net) road the front for two laps bringing back a break and when he sat up, I went across to a break that looked really promising. I was super motivated to make it work even though guys who had teammates in the break outnumbered me. We opened up a good gap, but soon after, only a few guys wanted to work and we went back to the field.
After that effort, my legs felt really bad and they never came around. I really got into the “hurt box” when I went to drink my second bottle of water and it taste like sh*$. I guess I didn’t clean it well and the water was so bad I couldn’t drink it, so I just used that bottle to cool my body off by dumping it on my head.
With 10 minutes to go the field split because of an attack by Neil Shirley (Jittery Joe’s) and Gordon McCauley (successful living) who road pretty strong throughout the day including riders like Josh Webster, Kayle Leogrande and a few others.
With 5 to go, that group had another split that took 5 guys up the road. I refused to chase and everyone is just looking at one another until Kayle Gritters took a lap pull with one to go to bring the group back just before the last turn.
I came out of turn four 8th wheel and started to sprint down the long 500m straightaway. Two guys from the break had a bit of a gap on me but I was closing very fast. I see the SDBC rider to my far left and I’m closing really fast but I ran out of room and Aaron Quesnell. (SDBC) won the race and me taking second.
I was happy with my sprint because I had the speed. When I cross the line, my power tap said 39.7 mph so that’s pretty fast to have bad legs.
This weeks training will be hard until about next Thursday then ill relax and get ready for Charlotte BofA crit.
Long Beach Criterium
In Los Angeles temperatures throughout the weekend were really high. Valleys saw triple digits, with inland city’s and coastal areas feeling temperatures in the high 90’s. This made for a very hot crit out in the Long Beach area presented by Los Angeles Wings bicycle club.
This has always been one of my favorite courses to race on. My very first criterium happen at this very course when I was only 13 years old.
I arrived at the race just 30 minutes before the start and that was actually perfect timing because it was so hot, I really didn’t need to warm up.
At the start it was pretty funny, No one was at the start line. Every one was hiding in the shade trying to save as much energy as possible. And were off…Adam Livingston (successful living) attacks and hurts everyone for the first lap. Well, at least I was hurt.
Attacks would go and come back, lap after lap. 30 minutes in, Kyle Gritters (Health Net) road the front for two laps bringing back a break and when he sat up, I went across to a break that looked really promising. I was super motivated to make it work even though guys who had teammates in the break outnumbered me. We opened up a good gap, but soon after, only a few guys wanted to work and we went back to the field.
After that effort, my legs felt really bad and they never came around. I really got into the “hurt box” when I went to drink my second bottle of water and it taste like sh*$. I guess I didn’t clean it well and the water was so bad I couldn’t drink it, so I just used that bottle to cool my body off by dumping it on my head.
With 10 minutes to go the field split because of an attack by Neil Shirley (Jittery Joe’s) and Gordon McCauley (successful living) who road pretty strong throughout the day including riders like Josh Webster, Kayle Leogrande and a few others.
With 5 to go, that group had another split that took 5 guys up the road. I refused to chase and everyone is just looking at one another until Kayle Gritters took a lap pull with one to go to bring the group back just before the last turn.
I came out of turn four 8th wheel and started to sprint down the long 500m straightaway. Two guys from the break had a bit of a gap on me but I was closing very fast. I see the SDBC rider to my far left and I’m closing really fast but I ran out of room and Aaron Quesnell. (SDBC) won the race and me taking second.
I was happy with my sprint because I had the speed. When I cross the line, my power tap said 39.7 mph so that’s pretty fast to have bad legs.
This weeks training will be hard until about next Thursday then ill relax and get ready for Charlotte BofA crit.
posted by Rahsaan Bahati @ 8:20 AM
1 Comments:
At 8:27 PM,
Anonymous said…
good Luck at Bank Of America! Live near Charlotte but will not be there this out of town due to work! I did see you ther last year!!! hope you can cope with the heat!
David N. Findley
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