By John McKee
No need rehashing endlessly the wrestling match between promoter Chris Lotts and the 55/60+ racers but for the short term it was a victory for the racers and the long term it was a loss. You knew we would lose in the long run. It was a full payout of $250 for 3 places for CBR #3 but it will be $125 from here on out and that would be a full payout. Lord knows if Chris would apply the 50% rule if we have below 38 riders. $63 payout total. Anyway thanks to Jan and Eric for helping us win a very short term victory here. It was good for 3 people that got a good payday at CBR #3. I hear talk that the new SCNCA setup costs CBR more so they can't payout as much. OK. I will stop there.
I love racing at this venue. It is a 20 minute bike ride from my house and of course shorter for a car ride. The course is bone flat with 4 corners and narrower legs between turn 2 and 3 and 3 and 4. Some pretty rocky areas to ride over. The finish leg is wide and safe to sprint it out. One mile loop in total. Sign ups went slow but we ended up with about 42 racers. Decent number for us but of course far short of what we can produce with a decent payout, course, and start time. One other thing about the venue is there are lots of cars that come and go to their business and work. The Costa Mesa PD did an outstanding job escorting everyone around. There was one dildo head that pulled out of a drive way in front of the 35+ field on the last lap creating chaos and a crash. Nothing CMPD could do about that.
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| Couple of our furry friends basking in the nice weather in Costa Mesa at CBR #3 |
Mark Hoffenberg was trying to drum up racers so we could make the 50% rule of the forced reduced field size of 75. That is the max you can have with cat 5 racers. Mark had 2 other team members show up and that was good but later in the day I see Bob "Snoozer Head" Pelkofer of Mark's Rokform/Rock N' Road team. I later said something on facebook about this and Mark said Bob wanted to sleep in and snuggle with his wife. What's up with that? Snuggle over race. Come on! I think I know what "Snuggles" Pelkofer is up to. He is about to spring on his wife that he needs another bike. NOT wants another bike but NEEDS another bike. You and I know that they are expensive nowadays but I bet "Snuggles" wife doesn't. Lol. You do what you have to do. Bob did do the 35+ race which is 50 minutes and then do the 1/2/3 race and finish 39th which means he did all of the 90 minute race. Pretty impressive "Snuggles"!
42 guys did line up at 7:30 am. I good group of fast riders. Mike Birditt added Fred Hoblit to his stable of fine 55+ racers at Swami's. Glad to see Fred back out racing with us. Malcolm Hill seems to have gotten the bug to race with the 55/60+ guys. Malcolm is as strong as they come and strengthens our field. Faster race. Faster race...safer race! It's those slow bunches that get us in trouble. We don't have the last corner problem like cat 4s and 5s.
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| Mid race action-you can see Birdy, Gene, Ricky, Howard and myself. Photo courtesy of Paramount's Chris Bright. |
The race started fast. Mark Hoffenberg tried his best off the block imitation of Bob Pelkofer while Bob was snoozing or snuggling. Mark got out there for about 2 laps before a combo of low fuel and pack chase but an end to this program. Rokform/Rock N' Road was going to jump as often as they could with Peter Allen and Henry Schnepf coming off Mark. There was an early group of 7 or more that got a small gap but was closed immediately. The 1st half of the race was pretty speedy. I felt good after having a good week of training. Fred Hoblit and Mike McConnell tried solo efforts to get things going but their efforts were short lived. Rod Mallory and Malcolm Hill got going once but without Rokform/Rock N' Road and Swami's nothing could possibly stick. Once everyone seemed to come to the same conclusion which was half way through the race the pace slowed. Major churning occurred. The usual jumps and quick chases but no one seemed to have their heart into giving their all and being chased down only to have used up some energy bullets.
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| Shameless display of the new Paramount skinsuit with armwarmers. New lower cut neck. Kit by DNA. |
The last 4 laps came and it really got dicey. No team was big enough to control the pace and set up a fast ride and stringing it out. 40 minutes seemed to go by quickly. One lap to go! Rokform/Rock N' Road went to their short arsenal and sent Henry to the front to set a fast pace and keep riders from swarming Hoffy. Henry kept the pace fairly high but not smoking fast. Henry took to 2/3 the way between turn 2 and turn 3. Peter Allen took over and started ramping up the speed. Mark figured Mike Birditt would be on his wheel but a ways around turn 3 Mark checked and saw Malcolm on his wheel and Birdy riding his buddy and teammate Dale Luedtke's wheel. Mark saw Mike and Dale moving forward so he decided to jump before Peter was done with his leadout. Mark went hard just before he got to turn 4. He really hit it hard after the turn hitting a high 2 second power number of 1179 watts. Mark wasn't in his freshest state after a hard week of training and a 4 hour endurance ride the day before. It's hard to believe that he isn't working on his sprinting in his current training cycle. You wouldn't know that by how he is performing!
Everyone else got on it and it was a mass sprint of different colored kits racing toward the line. Mike Birditt was kicking it in hitting a high of 36.3 mph. Mike was gaining on Mark but Mark held on for the win in 55+ but about a wheel!! Nice job, Mark. There is a great picture available on facebook of the finish that I haven't gotten permission to use yet. I have tried since Monday but have only gotten reminders of bloggers that have been sued for copyright infringement. I will insert if I get the green light.
Mike was followed in by Malcolm Hill, Cyril Hunte, Mike McConnell(Mike is strong and still learning to ride criteriums. He needs work on his cornering. Learn to pedal through when you can.), Ricky Shorts, Nelson Alaan, and Dale Luedtke.
In 60+ action Mike Marotta showed himself in the 2nd half of the race after doing his own snooze program early on. At least he was riding with us. Mike got himself in good position on the last lap. I was on his wheel but didn't know it until I saw the photo of the finish. I was totally focused on Kal Szkalak. Kal was right next to Ricky Shorts. Wayne "The Vet" Rosenkrantz was on the right side of Kal while I was on the left. Mike held his position with an excellent sprint and won the 60 race! The 1st loss for Kal this year. Not only did Kal not win but both Wayne and myself got by him to place 2nd(Wayne) and myself for 3rd. I was pretty pleased to get around Kal and looked up to see Mike ahead of me. I didn't see Wayne on the other side of Kal. Wayne and I were close but a bike length behind Mike. I was followed in by Kal, Craig Jones, Mike Fleming, Howard Miller, and Don Kimper.
It was a pretty fun race and nice to use this course. It is a little dicey on the 2 narrowest sections. The average speed was 25.3 mph while the 50+ race was a little over 1 mph faster. Jay Wolkoff did the best of the 55/60+ racers in the 50+ race with a 9th place finish. Birdy was 15th. The oldest racer in our race and at the event was...yours truly. Yikes. Where are you Robert when I need you. Lol. That's all for now folks! Train hard and race safe!
