ucla road race -- brrrrrrr

still waiting for the results from the UCLA road race to be posted but i'll give a quick recap anyways.

here in southern california we can't complain about our weather. while all my friends on the east coast, midwest and rocky mountains are bundled up and either skiing or rolling around with the knobbiest tires they can find, i have been logging consistent outdoor training miles since december. until last week, we have been enjoying summer-like weather!

this past saturday, a few Swami teammates and i opted to ignore the weather forecasts (would you ever go outside if you listened to everything the weather man suggested?) and drive to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, east of LA, to race the UCLA road race. the 75-mile race consisted of six 12.5-mile laps with 1,500-feet of climbing each lap. a bruiser, to say the least.

it was a small field so the head ref combined the pro/1/2 field with the collegiate "a" racers for a total field size of 30-40 riders.

my role within the team was to set an uncomfortable pace from the gun up the first four-mile climb. i drove the pace for as long as i could, but i was the first casualty of this effort. i popped off the back of the group before we hit the descent which might have allowed me enough time to recover.

after the first lap, i started to see the damage the initial pace had produced as single and twosomes of riders were popping off slowly but surely. i learned later that our team's top climber, Orion Berryman, rode a great race and finished in the lead chase pack just behind the select group that produced the podium.

on the third lap, the temperatures dropped and snow flurries came over the peaks and started blasting us. the descent on the fourth lap and the climb on the fifth laps were the coldest of the race as all my fingers were numb and the snow was sticking to my sunglasses impairing vision on the descent. at the top of the fifth lap, the sun peaked out and stayed out long enough so i could thaw out my fingers. i told myself when i made it to the end of the fifth lap i would ride off course back to my car and get a warmer, and dryer, set of gloves before finishing the final lap. however, when i got to the start/finish line at the end of the fifth lap, Orion and Pascal were there waiting (they had to wait for the guy with the car keys!) and said the ref had shortened the race from six laps down to five.

even with the shortened lap, i saw at least a dozen racers drop out before completing the fourth lap, so my guess would be that 20 or so riders finished the race.

after popping on the first lap, i regained my composure and strength and caught quite a few riders who popped out of the peloton throughout the race. the effort was just what i needed going into this upcoming weeks race at calville bay classic, a four day stage race in the hills outside of las vegas.

till next time,
lars