Snelling Race Report

As I look forward to the weekends, I feel like a kid looking forward to going to an amusement park.  I'm stoked to be racing my bike.  The Snelling Road Race was no execption.  Ben and I headed out Saturday morning, as the race started in the early afternoon.  After 3 hours of driving through the suburban wasteland known as the Central Valley, we arrived in Snelling, a quaint little farm town northeast of Merced.





With wind, rough roads, and rolling hills, the Pro/1/2 race started fast and stayed fast.  For 6 laps of a roughly 12 mile curcuit, the field wound its way through the farm country.  Teams like Cal Giant, BPG, Webcor, Colavita, Davis Bike Club, and Eric Wohlberg (an eight-man team of one) tried and tried to force a move, but it was not until the end of lap 4 that a break of 7 finally rolled away.

I could sense the break was about to go as we entered the roughest section of the course, but I was about 10 bikes to far back to do anything about it.  The race was game over at that point.  BPG tried to bring the break back, but they weren't making any ground.  Coming in for the field sprint, I felt like going for it, but I didn't quite have the legs.  I ended up rolling in somewhere in the top 30 (out of the ~100 starters, less than half probably finished both due a large number of flat tires and the high speeds).

After the race, I found Ben and Justin who had both dropped out, and we watched Emily finish.  She looked great coming into the sprint, but she faded as the drag race came to the line.  "Oh well," she said, "I was in too big of a gear."

That night we went out to eat at the only vegetarian restaurant in town, New Stars Vegetarian Restaurant.  They were very welcoming to our group, and if you're ever in Merced, check them out.



We woke up Sunday morning to the sound of pouring rain.  My motivation to ride a couple hours before the race cracked with that noise. 

The Original Merced Criterium, as it is known, uses some of the same roads as next weekend's Merco Cycling Classic, but this race is much smaller by comparison.  In the women's race, Emily covered as many moves as she could on her own, but a break finally escaped.  At the finish, Emily polished off her sprinting legs to finish 7th on the day.

The men's race had a much smaller field than the day before of maybe 30 riders.  With 8 or 9 Cal Giant riders in this race, I decided to sit and watch until the race was at least halfway over.  So while I surfed the back of the field, I watched Ben getting his feet wet (literally) in the Pro/1/2 field.  He looked great, and I thought for sure he would meet his goal of finishing.  It wasn't to be, but I think within a couple of months he'll be right up there in the mix.

Around the halfway point, the winning break of 5 riders went up the road, and I was not in it.   Then I figured I would wait for the finish to at least get a top ten.  With 2 laps remaining, I moved right to the front, and I thought, "I should attack now."  But I didn't have the guts to do it, instead I went for the field sprint and finished around 12th place on the day.

In all, I was pleased with the weekend.  I feel good about how I raced.  I'm putting myself in the front and where I need to be.  I'm especially please that the team picked up yet another new team member this weekend.  Akira Wong, a Category 1 rider from San Francisco is joining the OA team!  More on this soon.

In the meantime, make a donation to support OrganicAthlete and Team Vegan!