7/15/08 - Tuesday Night brought about Westlake World's Race #15 and to top it off, it was Zipp Demo Night. I arrived at the bus lot at 5pm and saw an already forming line to get a hold of a set of Zipp wheels for racing. By 5:30pm, I was outfitted with a nice set of Zipp 404's. Funny thing was, almost everybody else had 404's, 808's or 303's too. No real advantage for me.
Another interesting thing about Zipp Night is that there are always larger than normal fields. The Zipp demo's and special merchandise primes are a great incentive. I think there was about 80 racers contesting the A & B Races. Plus, there always seems to be a few racers that come out that only race this night. (Go Figure)
So with all that info, Team SBR lined up about 6 riders to contest the B group. As we rolled out, only one thing mattered to Jason Rapp, win the prime for the Zipp carbon fiber cage to match the one he won last year. That's a good team goal to start with. I hope the other 25 riders didn't mind. As the race started, things stayed relatively uneventful. No riders were allowed off the front and not to many attacks were being launched. Jimmy Nic did a great job staying near the front and handling any attacks. Of course, Jason did his little fyers off the front but nobody wanted to work and the three women riding up front did a good job pulling the main group back up. I stayed about mid pack for the first part of the race waiting for the Zipp carbon cage prime to help Jason win. As the prime for the Zipp cage was announced, funny thing was, nobody contested it and Jason won it with no problems.
So now there was about 5 laps left and like I mentioned earlier, the race was pretty uneventful. The pace quickened a little bit and I then started working my way to the front to get ready for a late attack or a final group sprint. So going into the bell lap, still nothing. Then, things picked up quite rapidly. As the pace was ramping up, a few people in the group moved to the front that normally don't race in the weekly series. I made it a point to follow those people that I didn't recognize. This year's series has giving me a few racing first's and I was soon to experience another first. As I was going into turn #3, I was approaching from the inside line. I was clearly in view of the rider on my outside and not diving into the corner. Well...the next thing I know, the rider is coming down hard into the corner and pinching me into the curb. Was this rider wanting me to hit my brakes or drop back? Too bad, I was already committed and the next thing I know, we were hip to hip. Not just lightly touching but doing the Hip Bump from some 60's dance. Luckily, we made it through the corner upright and continued to race toward the front. Now this made me a little mad because I know this rider is experienced and was not expecting something like this.
As the last corner approached, I stayed about 5 riders back and was looking for a good leadout by some unsuspecting rider. Jason was still in contention and was about 2 or 3 riders back on my left. As the sprint ramped up, a young college kid started to go a little early on the inside. I was able to pick my way through a few riders and found my way right behind Jason and Stark Velo's, Tim House. As the line rapidly approached, the college kid was clearly running on fumes as Jason, Tim & I sprinted toward the finish. As we hit the line, it was clear that Jason won. The question was, who got 2nd and who got 3rd? Well, thanks to the picture at the line, the question was clearly answered. I was awarded 2nd after Tim was DQ'ed for being over the double yellow. That was too bad, because it was a hard fought finish.
So, as the attached picture shows, the race was really close. Great job by Team SBR for a 1-2 finish!
I would also like to give kudos to Zipp, Dick Brink, Bike Authority and Chris Riccardi for another successful Zipp Demo Night!
7/17/08 - Thursday Night meant race #2 of The Chapel 3 Race Series. Once again, Jason Rapp and myself were the only two Team SBR members contesting the series. One thing about Thursday, it was hot! Racing on the blacktop made it even worse. As Jason and I warmed-up before the race, we tried to come up with a gameplan to keep both of us in front and hopefully, in the point standings. Having a few Westlake regulars (Gwen, Kevin Kimmich & Rick Bennett) riding in the B Group helped as well.
So as the start approached, the B Group field grew quite large at the line, over 30 riders. I swear that 1/3 of the field was Stark Velo riders. I was hoping that the start would be like last week, smooth and under control. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I quickly buried my HR in the 180's for the first 4-5 laps. Every time I was able to rest during the technical part of the course, the long backstretch came up and so did my HR. So...as we entered the back corners that pointed us towards the front of the church, I found myself safely on Jason's wheel and I was finally able to get my HR under control. That feeling didn't last long when the dreaded "Hissing" noise started and everybody was looking to see who was going flat. The race continued without anyone fessing up and we didn't find out who it was until about a lap later. Yep...you guess it. It was Jason. I didn't know it was him until I saw him at the start/finish in his street clothes.
So now I have no teammate, I'm struggling, and the 30 minutes is almost up and the last 5 laps were ready to begin. Jason now turned into my coach and was barking out orders. As I started the first of 5 final laps, Jason yelled out, "Get on #2!" I knew what that meant but the Stark Velo guys didn't and Tim House actually rode up to me and jokingly asked what Jason meant since his teammates were asking him. So...up to the front I went to sit on Drew's (#2) wheel. Now Drew is a very good rider for only being 14 and he's always sitting second wheel and Jason knows this. The bad thing was, I couldn't stay up front for too long and I fell back about 7-8 riders. So there I stayed for about 2 more laps. That's when my other coach, Chris Riccardi, yelled at me to get my ass to the front and stay there. Now Chris was using the B Group to warm-up for his A Group race and was helping other riders as well. Shit...here comes another hard effort to move to the front while on the long backstretch.
As we made the turn back toward the start/finish for the bell lap, I was sitting about 7th wheel and I knew that I needed to make my move on the backstretch to get in the top 5 going into the final turns. As we approached the end of the backstretch, I was able to make it up to 4th wheel behind Drew, a Summit guy & Rick Bennett. Now two or three riders pulled up beside me as we rounded the last turn going into the finishing straight but I had the inside line as I started my sprint. Drew was able to get away but I was hot on the Summit guy's wheel and barely missed getting second. I settled for 3rd.
Now Drew has a commanding lead by winning both races so far. With Jason finishing 2nd the first race and a DNF for this race, it makes his chances of a top 3 harder. But having 14 points keeps him in the points race. I'm sitting in 2nd overall with 20 pts. after scoring a 4th and 3rd place finishes. Hopefully, Jason and I can score two high finishes in the final race this week and finish 2nd and 3rd in the overall. Thanks again to Jason and Chris for lighting that fire under my ass!
