Start: My race started with a masterful clip in. My cleat just instantly grab my pedal and I was off.  Not really important to the race, but it felt amazing.

Laps 1-3: Anyways, the race stayed together the first three laps.  No one did any work on the flats so the pace just kept speeding up and down as people tried to attack and failed.  The group definitely pushed the climbs, but I felt fine with the pace and didn’t have any trouble holding position.  The descent was terrible for me the first couple of laps because I kept getting stuck in a huge crack in the middle of the road.  Also the feed zone was complete chaos, but I found Pat quickly after the second lap and easily got my feed.
Lap 4: On the backside flat, the pace jumped up quick. A couple guys on the front just drilled it and kept us above 30 for at least 5 miles.  The pack split into four groups with a couple bike lengths between each group.  Ben, Ed and I were all in the third group.  Ed jumped really quickly to the next group, but Ben and I missed his wheel.  Ben dug deep and took a long pull and I came around him to finish the pull to the second group.  The second group eventually caught the first group, but the pace still didn’t ease up.  A little before the second climb everyone slowed down and got quiet. We hit the climb and Stanford launched an attack.  I believe JD from SDSU followed and counter attacked.  Both put in a huge gap on the field and at that moment I knew JD was going to take the win.  On the descent I was able to get to the outside and avoid the huge crack in the road, but at the cost of not getting the best position for the group sprint.  I started to move my way up along the center line when space opened up, but there were still riders blocking my way for the sprint.  Near the bottom of the final climb a small hole opened up and I decided it’s now or never. I knew it was too early, but I had to go.  I passed Ed and found myself in 3rd (first in the group) about 30 meters from the finish, but legs were dying. I kept going as hard as I could, but it wasn’t enough.  I blew up just before the finish and ended up 7th.  It was a much better result than I was expecting before the race so I am happy, but of course not satisfied.

-Usama H.

Men’s B UCLA Road Race:

-Chris J.

Men’s D USC Criterium:

USC’s Crit was my second race, ever. At Red Trolley my strategy was to stay at the end of the main pack, but that didn’t work so this time I was determined to stay within sight of the main pack. The race was postponed about half an hour because the fences and hay bales were not setup in time. I had already warmed up on a trainer so I was ready to start, but trying not to cool down or get impatient. USC’s plan was to have a clinic before the race for new riders, but the majority (>95%) of the riders had already raced a crit before so there were many a groan when instead of starting the race we took a couple of practice laps as a group. Then when we all thought the race was going to start we had to wait for the hay to be swept and the start/finish line marked. So when the race finally began I had started in the second row and was holding position in the front half. The course was flat, but had two corners that had storm drain dips in the road. If the line around the corner was not wide enough the rear wheel hit hard on the bank of the dip. I think this was the reason Daniel’s tire blew out in the first couple of laps. About half way through the 25min race I was boxed in the middle of the pack when the guy to my left took a drink of his water bottle. He was slightly behind me so I didn’t think much of it and held my line. That’s when he bumped into me. If I hadn’t had my hands in the drops I’m sure we would have hooked handle bars. Even so I felt his wobbling as he tried to regain control. When he uttered an “I’m sorry” I knew he hadn’t gone down, but I knew not to get behind him just in case he made any more mistakes. On a few of the turns I had enough momentum and energy to make my way closer to the front. This helped when the preem laps were announced and the front took off. With a few laps to go I got behind Ian and knew I had to get ready for the final sprint. With one lap to go I had started falling behind because I had been so determined to stay near the front that I used up more energy than I should have. That’s when I heard a loud pop and saw Ian’s front wheel wobble. Apparently another rider had driven his rear axle into Ian’s front wheel. I think I made it somewhere in the 15th-20th place, but (get ready for some cheesiness) I feel like I won because I achieved what I set out to do, which was to stay with the front pack and finish the race.

-Isaac G.

Men’s A Road Race:

This race was about timing and more importantly, luck. An early solo break by UCSB sped up the road. The first pee break was shortly after the first lap. I took the opportunity to second UC Davis recommendation for the break and quickly pulled over. After that, we got back up to speed.

Nothing else quite happened until the middle of the third lap when I found myself sitting 3^rd wheel behind a Davis rider. He wanted me to pull through his 15mph pace but I declined. After 15 seconds of that business, I passed him since no other riders were awake. Except for 2 guys: Santa Clara and Davis. Both riders were of average/dweebier stature. We opened a 30 meter gap at 18mph without trying. We quickly agreed that we would for a break.

We took turns about 20 seconds at first. Both guys were on tubulars, I am not *just a note. I had already had a banana, powerbar (worst bar for cycling), and margarita shot blocks (the worst flavor, sandy too, but works magic: 3x sodium). I don’t have a computer but we probably averaged 23-25mph in most places. We caught the solo UCSB guy on the back of the third lap. He was hanging on for dear life. He only lasted about 10km. After he fell off, we continued on. I had an E-gel and led into the last 2 laps the other guys started to slow.

We had an encounter with the A’s. We caught them and to make a long story short, after lots of stress, commotion, yelling and cursing, I was passing the A’s peloton leaders in the dirt on the outside. Looked back and saw the other guys following, and pressed on.

I worked about 60% of the effort. Just before the finish with one lap to go, the UCSB fell off the back. Shortly after the first roller, the Davis guy hollered “Im eating” so I backed off so he could catch my wheel. He was pacing but about 15 feet back. I looked back 2x more over the next 10 seconds and he wasn’t helping the cause, so I just decided to ride on.

After the hairpin, I was caught by the A’s breakaway 8 men strong. It was nice seeing other riders. I chased, passed, rolled to the back, and passed the 8 man echelon numerous times, being sure not to “draft”. The referee assured me he would not neutralize me because “it would be unfair” since I was in a solo break. Then I knew we would win. I zipped up my UCSD jersey and backed off the A break before the last corner.

It was a fun race and had great timing and luck. Thanks to my teammates for helping us win and great job this weekend everyone.

-Edwin C.

Men’s D’s Road Race

Having warmed up with the TTT, I sat on a trainer staying warm thinking about positioning and the course I had just rode on. About 5 minutes before the race started we gathered at the start line squishing as far forward as we could. I saw Kristaps in great position already and I made a note to just stick his wheel for the next race so I could start with such good positioning. We set off at a fast pace, I was really enjoying the draft I was getting from the pack but I didn’t like how far back I was. I moved up quickly along the edge until I ran into one rider who had decided to not grab a wheel (he plays an important part in a bit). He was constantly exerting a lot of energy to just keep up, and then he would drop back quickly, and speed up again because he would tire himself out, recover, and try to reclaim his position. I didn’t like riding behind him so I tried moving into the peloton again. I was battling for a wheel when the first downhill came, we sped up and I decided to let the guy I was battling with take the wheel and I would stick to his. I moved into the pack, was feeling great, and then it happened. The rider from before that was up along the side of the pack, had come back up again and boxed me in, I wasn’t too worried. Then the rider that I was behind started to brake for some reason, and not wanting to break, I let my wheel overlap his wheel a bit. This is where things went downhill fast. He decided to shift his line to the left very quickly, his rear wheel grabbed my front wheel and before I could react he had swiped my wheel out from under me and I went down knocking the rider to my left (the one who had kept moving up and down the pack) down with me. At that point there was a group of riders who went down, and those behind us just blew past. As soon as I went down the first thing that went through my mind was how I could recover my position and catch the lead group. I was in the VERY back and was determined to start catching groups. The race quickly turned into an ITT with other riders I could use to draft off of. I came across a Cal Poly guy, a Davis rider, and my teammate Ryan Fanant during the first lap, but they were too spread out, and too tired to all close each other gaps. Once I reached Ryan he let me draft and sent me on my way, he said he popped and couldn’t keep the pace, so thank you for your help man, I know it was hard. By the second lap I was starting to see a group of three ahead of me and I set my eyes on catching them, but every time I failed to close the gap my legs wanted to stop, I stopped listening to them about ¾ through the lap. I powered through and caught the group by the start of the third lap but they were riding as if they were on a Sunday morning coffee ride, much less a race. I finished going hard, far ahead of the other groups, but still 10 or 15 minutes behind the main peloton, if you could call it that at that point. Stuff happens in a race and it’s tough when it happens during a race you feel good in, you live and you learn and hop back on the bike. But in the end, I had fun pushing myself hard, and if anything, I think I felt sad that I ran out of groups to try to catch by the end of it. :P

-David B.

I’ve been bicycling all my life, and long-distance road cycling for about two years, but Boulevard 2013 was the first competitive speed event I had ever done on a bicycle. About 4 minutes before the start of the race I realized I left my sunglasses in someone’s car, and the best I could find was a pair of boxy Oakley’s from one of my teammates. I snapped a picture of myself and some other UCSD riders at the starting line, hoping this would be the only mishap.

After a brief safety briefing from the race official, the whistle blew and we were off. The first thing that struck me was the slow pace, I guess I had expected a dead sprint from the starting line, but within the first mile I found myself struggling to keep pace with the front of the pack, desperate not to get dropped. This was my worst fear. I could feel the pressure of all of the riders behind me, inches off my back wheel, and my breath started to catch in my throat, like it does when you jump into a pool that’s way too cold. I’m not normally a nervous guy but I was worried I was having a panic attack.

After a couple more corners we started a long winding descent where we hit speeds over 40mph and I started feeling better. This is the kind of riding I like to do, I just had to get used to doing it a lot faster than usual. I quickly got used to the way the peloton would huddle together in a group, all of us drafting off of each other, and tighten up into a straight line as we hit higher speeds. I managed to stay close to the front of the pack for most of the race, and I led for a few miles, foregoing the coach’s advice against it and relying instead on my experience from long-distance, non-competitive rides. In a double-century, when you’re at the front of the pack it’s your turn to pull. In a race, this is a great way to wear yourself out.

I pushed myself to maintain a high speed on a slight uphill into the wind with 50 or 60 riders right behind me. When I started to get tired, I discovered the sinking feeling that comes when your legs and lungs are on fire and other riders start passing you on both sides. My fear of getting dropped returned so I summoned up just enough strength to get behind one of the riders passing me and soon discovered the strange feeling of resting while riding uphill. That’s a tough one to explain.

There was one more long uphill before some rolling uphills and downhills leading to the finish line, and this is where the breakaway group made their move. I did my best to keep up with them but I was maxed out and losing ground. I lost sight of the breakaway group but managed to stay with the lead riders of the rest of the group, and by the time we got to the top of that last, long uphill and started descending again I started to feel better and picked up speed, along with two or three other riders.

The group was thinned out by this point, several guys riding alone with several bike lengths between them. I got behind a rider who was sprinting to catch the breakaway group and was surprised to find that I had the energy to keep up with him. When he started to slow down I passed him and pushed ahead myself until I also began to slow, and then my teammate Akinori Mitani suddenly passed me. I got behind him and we picked up the pace again, both of us out of the saddle.

When he sat down and slowed a little bit, I drafted for a minute or so and then pulled around him, calling over my shoulder that I would pull for a while, since he’s our resident climber and I wanted to help him as much as I could. He was running out of steam and called out for me to go ahead, we were almost to the finish line. I hadn’t realized the end was so close, so I stood up again and put in what little sprint I had left in me, finishing in 8th place and about ten seconds or so ahead of Aki, one rider in between us.

It was a gratifying feeling to finish in the top 10 riders in my first race, and even more so knowing that had I not been able to draft behind Aki during that last sprint, there’s no way I would have been able to do that. I was struggling not to collapse over my handlebars, but it was the perfect end to my first competitive race, and my introduction to being part of a cycling team.

-Michael D.

Red Trolley Criterium: