| Redlands Bicycle Classic '02 |
 | Redlands Classic Road Race This is the first racing of the season and is still a building block for the more important races later in the year, but how will we get on against the Americans that have been racing for about a month. Read on to find out... Wednesday, March 13, 2002 11:00 am Stage 1 - Saturn of Loma Linda Mt. Rubidoux Time Trial for Women -
5k Ok how hard can 5km be? It was a prologue up a hill, but it was neither a
short blast up hill nor a regular timetrial. The hill was not steep enough to
call a big climb or flat enough for tri-bar timetrialling. We arrived early
enough to ride the course a couple of times. The first time the first 3km
seemed to fly by then the climb started to rear up. The last 1km was quite
windy. The second time I thought that I would use tri-bars and push a gear and
not treat it as a climb. (this was the wrong approach!) The good thing is it
is training so we can try different things. I have been working on a warm-up
programme for mountain bike racing and used it for this event even though it
was only 10 minutes and not 2 hours. It seemed to work as my pulse short up
high and my legs felt quite good. We are using SRM (black box flight
recorders) power cranks, these record how much power is put through the
chainset, so as long as we push on the pedals in theory it does not matter
were we finish.
Adrian and Andrea at the top of the mountain TT waiting to give out warm tops and drinks as we crossed the line. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prolgue timetrail result
Thursday, March 14, 2002 8:45 am Stage 2 - Arrowhead RMC Highland Circuit Race for Women - 59.5 km Today's stage was 18 laps of a 4.5km circuit, this basically had a ramp climb, fast descent through a housing estate before hitting the ramp climb again. The race was quite controlled by the Prime Alliance team once a small break had gained 30 seconds. I manage to stay in the main pack until the last lap were the pressure from the front broke my elastic, these last few laps blew the pack to bits. There was probably only 100ish racers left at this time anyway (from the +200 starters) . I trailed in in a small group just behind the pack - not too bad. The hardest part for me today was pushing on over the top of the climb - much better result than yesterday though! Date written 14/03/02
9:00 am Stage 3 - The Sun Road Race for Men - 174 km - Redlands to Oak Glen This was the stage that everyone had been building up to be the epic of
Redlands Classic. It was 130 km with the last 10 km up a steep climb. The
first 30 km was run at an incredible pace, added to this there were lots of
twists and turns. It was no surprise that a couple of people ended up in
hospital. After about 40 km a group of 5 gained a gap on the bunch, the lead
grew to 4 minutes before it was reeled in as the finish got nearer. The last
feed was at 15 km before the finish and I needed a bottle - the only trouble
was the big U.S. teams were feeding from following cars - I slowed to get my
bottle as the race took off at full speed! This left me in a small group with
only a few people interested in racing still. The race blew apart on the climb
anyway and I passed riders who had obviously gone too fast at the bottom
all the way to the line. I was a bit disappointed as I never got to race up
the final climb. I finished 100th, this moved me into the top 100. World MTB
champion Roland Green won the stage as the breakaway was caught on the final
climb. In the women's race Caroline finished 9th. Saturday, March 16, 2002 2:00 pm Stage 4 - Beaver Medical Group Criterium for Women - Timed Event:
60 min. This was a typical American style crit, big sweeping bends and wide roads. The deal was you had to complete 45 minutes of the race or you would be eliminated from the race overall. Everyone's legs were tired so this was in the back of most of our minds. As the gun fired I somehow managed to come to life and the race was not too bad once I had found the good lines around the corners. Half an hour seemed to wizz by and the 45 minutes target was in sight. This passed and the race was on to reach the "real" finish line. This I managed without too much incident and just a bit of gritting my teeth. I was in the middle of the bunch for nearly all of the race but Tim Morley was up at the front mixing it with the "big boys". He even won himself a watch on one of the primes. 30 people did not make the 45 minute cut-off, and those that were pulled out were only given a small time penalty (maybe they had the right idea?!) Sunday's stage is quite hilly with some narrow roads. With the top spots still close I am sure it will be a race to the line. Date written 16/03/02 10:00 am Stage 5 - Sunset Road Race - Women - 8 laps, 99.5 km
Women's neutralized to start of Sunset Road race. The Sunset Road Race featured multiple laps on a steep, technical course using the residential roads above Redlands town. It was forecast to rain but luckily it held off until after the finish. Today was going to be tough, especially after not recovering from the previous days racing. Yesterday at the crit before the start I wondered how it was going to go as I had "wooden legs". I managed to survive the hour and half whizzing around the towns streets but with such a technical, twisty hilly circuit I was going to have problems! From the startline there was a crash, this pushed me even further down the bunch, we did two laps around the crit circuit before headed for the hills. As we were heading for the circuit I was struggling and there were 11 laps to do on this hilly circuit. To cut it short I only did 5 laps before my group was stopped by the judges - if you were stopped then you were classed as finishing but hours down. Liam Killeen & Paul Manning were the only GB riders to reach the finish circuit back in town. The rest of us were reduced to spectators. Redlands Classic is a tough introduction to racing, I am glad I have never done it as a build up to the season in previous years! In the women's event Caroline Alexander was in a break with Judith Arndt (Ger) and Genevieve Jeanson (Can) for much of the day before they escaped towards the end. Caroline was on her own in third place before she was sent the wrong way with 2km to go, just before the line she was caught by the chasing pack. She ended up finishing 7th overall with Sue Thomas in 19th. The Sea Otter mountainbike stage race starts on Thursday with a tarmac town centre race on mtbs. |
It
was hard. Out of the start was a short climb then a descent, a tight bend
before it started to drag up. I was on the little tri-bars pushing my gear.
The road went around to the right were there was a flatish section before it
dragged up again. Then a short twisty descent with a tight corner. Then back
on to the tri-bars before reaching the 2km to-go sigh. From here to the top
was a steady climb, a bit bumpy and only a cars width. I used the tri-bars
again, with 750m to go I was caught by a US Postal rider on an aeroplane, he
was going about twice my speed! I crossed the line and had to sit down,
I had not done a very good time but I had tried my best (as the black box
flight recorder said). The only problem was I finished 157th. I was
lucky Caroline (Alexander) was only 8 seconds slower than me in the women's
event (she finished 11th)...... maybe I should have treated it like a
hill climb and not pushed a big gear, maybe not used tri-bars?.........
