Bike races

• 8/11/02 Timpani Criterium. This was my first race. I was doing really well for three laps. Then on the fourth lap some bonehead crashed into me and ended my race real quick. My carbon fiber fork snapped in half like a dry twig. So did his collarbone. Ouch. Here's a graph of my race. Clearly I was a little excited at the beginning... Result: crashed out.
• 8/24/02 Winters Road Race. After recovering from my crash and getting the nerve to race again, I tried a road race. I didn't crash, but I didn't do all that well either. I got dropped on the hill. Graphs by distance | by time. Result: 26 of 48.
• 8/31/02 San Ardo Road Race. I was hooked now, bring on the races! San Ardo was mostly flat, and kind of slow. I goofed around a bit and made some big attacks, but the never went anywhere. In the end I had a hard time holding my position in the pack and had a hard time getting into the final sprint. Graphs by distance | by time. Result: 16 of 42.
• 9/1/02 University Road Race. This was a brutal race. It was 15 laps around a 3 mile circuit around the UC-Santa Cruz campus, with a 300' climb on each lap. By the time the Cat 5's raced, it was 95 degrees out. The heat and the hill just baked me, and I dropped out after 4 laps. Graphs by distance | by time. Result: dropped out.
• New season!
• 1/5/03 Early Bird Criterium #1 First race of the new year. I got lucky in the final corner and was set up nicely for the final sprint, where I jumped in front of the leader at the last second. My first win! Graphs by distance | by time. Result: 1 of 50.
• 1/12/03 Early Bird Criterium #2 Pace was a little faster this time, but I got into a nice paceline at the front of the pack for the last few laps. It was a little more work, but it kept me in a good position for the finish. It was a windy day, and you can see it in the speed fluctuations. Because the course was a loop, on one side of the loop you speed up with tailwinds and the other you slow down with headwinds. So if you look at the speed graph, you can see the 15 laps we did. On the final sprint, the last guy in front of me backed off much sooner than I would have liked, so I just had to go for it. It was a really long sprint, but I held it and won again! Graphs by distance | by time. Result: 1 of 45.

  Movies! Here's my friend Dominic in the lead with about 3 laps to go in the Cat 4/Cat 5 race. Here's the finish line.

• 1/19/03 Early Bird Criterium #3 I rode with the Cat 4's this time, and they were a lot faster, and a lot more aggressive. I was also just getting over a cold, so I just took it easy. Graphs by distance | by time. Result: 48 of 87.
• 1/25/03 Patterson (Early Bird) Road Race This race started with a long 20-mile climb up a slight grade, then you turn the corner and it's a 10% grade for two miles. I think we dropped about half the Cat 5's on the intro grade, but on the steep part the pack just fell apart. I know I passed a few people, but not many. The descent was a blast! I rocketed down the steep part (with lots of riders hauling their way up in the lane right next to me!) and got into a mixed pack of about 15 riders for the whole descent. We were going 24 to 28mph the whole way with minimal effort. There was a brief time when my speedometer stopped working; I didn't really stop on the descent :-). Graphs by distance | by time. Result: 11 of 49