RMR Criterium, Saturday March 30

Aaron Branham scores a 2nd place for Zanconato Racing!

Nice Weather. Good to be working the cobwebs out of the legs a bit after a few days off the bike. This is a local training race, but it's still fun to don the racer boy spandex and play make believe...for the Salt Lake City "World Championships"!!  Everyone's a rock star right? :) Anyway, Aaron pulled out a few stops and easily managed a podium 2nd place finish, just getting pipped at the line by a guy he towed around for the last two laps. Nicely done Aaron.

Mid race, coming around for yet another photo op, a bit of a break away going on here. Aaron in light blue Zanc kit (we're anxiously awaiting delivery of the official black team Zanconato racing kit...back in black baby!). That's me in the "see no evil, hear no evil 90's" Motorola jersey.   -Nothing exciting going on here folks...just move along.

Aaron coming in for the Sprint finish...lost first position by a matter of inches. Next time Aaron...next time...

RMR Criterium, Tuesday April 2

Mark Otterson scores a 1st place for Zanconato Racing!

Sorry, no pics this time... It was Dave Baker, Mark Otterson, and myself. This time the race was in the evening. I decided to ride to the race course after work from downtown..a short 11 miles. Problem is, procrastinator that I am, I put off leaving work until the last minute and had to hurry it up on the ride out. A good headwind didn't help matters. Rode up to the start line just in time to say hi to Mark and Dave.

We had the usual suspects in our flite - starting to recognize faces now. Absent was the big clyde who seems averse to ever riding in the hoods or drops, taking pulls, or even getting into the pace line. He just seems content to sit out there to the side while the rest of us rotate in the pace line. Weird. The thing is...he's pretty strong and I won't deny that I've taken a few lazy breaks behind his wheel. He breaks a lot of wind (no, not that kind silly) ...like Moses parting the Red Sea.  Ok, I digress. Back to the race. 

Anyway, Mark pulled for a lap or two, I took a few turns at the front, and so did Dave. Mark did a good job settling things down from the get go. Big wide sweeping turn..watch out for that storm drain in the middle...back stretch...a few pot holes, but more or less uneventful until you get to the s-turn (I call it a "chicane" because it makes me feel euro-cool). Post S-turn there's another straightaway, then a sprint around that hair pin turn I mentioned in a past post and every one re-groups for a nice recovery ride into the headwind. Rinse-Lather-Repeat. Second to last lap, a skinny guy (i.e., not me) took off and Mark responded. Mark is a strong rider...don't mess with him.  Heh, just kidding -he's the nicest guy in the world...unless you are cheeky enough to attack when he's in the same peloton you are. So that pretty much ruined any semblance of organization going on with several others trying to follow, lots of gaps, others sitting in (like Dave and I...but I won't kid anyone, I couldn't follow if I tried). It was  pretty clear Mark was going to own this thing so Dave and I went into 2 person TT mode to bridge up to the chasing group. We just wanted to get back on before the final stretch. Thanks to some incredible pulls by Dave and taking a few turns myself, we were able to do just that, so I'll count the race as a success for all of us.  I have no idea where we placed...but what matters is Mark's nice win!

RMR Criterium Series

Saturday gave us some absolutely beautiful conditions for riding. Aaron and I both raced - 30 minutes doing loops with 30 other guys around Rocky Mountain Raceway out in West SLC. Neither of us have done this race before, so we weren't sure what to expect. Turned out to be loads of fun. There was a decent headwind on the front stretch that really caused the pace to drop every time we came around that part of the loop...no one was willing to push hard into the wind. I kind of laughed when another quasi-pro got irritated and tried to wave Aaron forward to pull the group into the wind. I didn't catch the whole exchange but it looked like he was taking things a little too seriously. This was a weekly training race after all..not the world championships. Aaron led for a few laps, and I tried to stay no more than one or two bike lengths behind him most of the race. Anyway, the pace would go up a bit on the back stretch, then a fun chicane before a tight hairpin turn into the home straightaway again (a quarter mile drag race strip). It was this hairpin that caused a few gaps every now and then, but due to the headwind and easy pace on the front stretch, everyone came back together except on the last loop, where the field started to split about 3/4 of the way down the back stretch. Aaron was in the front group that made the break, but I didn't have the legs (or perhaps I was behind the wrong wheel, or I didn't dig deep enough, not sure which...) to make that last break and got stuck in a middle pack that came in about 300 meters after the leaders. Aaron did great - coming in 6th for the day.

Going into the first crit of the year, my objective was pretty clear: don't crash and don't fall off the back. I think I accomplished both. To be honest I think Aaron should "upgrade" to the next category level next time we do this series...he's pretty strong & thought people weren't pushing hard enough at times. Speak for yourself Aaron, hahaha! I'll probably need to race once or twice more in the same flite before upgrading myself...

Lessons learned:

-Get right on the gas mid way through the hairpin turn going into the headwind, or get gapped!

-Mid pack is not the place to be.

-Dig Deeper!

-Watch the Cat1/2 pros and which lines they take through the turns...need to be smarter about taking the right line.

-This is FUN!

Eye candy...courtesy of some of our sponsors

Some days, like today - when it's kinda wet outside, it really IS about the bike.  Now that we've closed out the team kit order and wait for our pals at Tex-Market USA to work their magic, why not spend some time ogling hardware?  

Zanconato:

Some of my favorite builds: 

Zanconato Cross!

SRM:

(we're not worthy!)

Ritchey:

(They make great, functional components, at a good price point, that are still quite light, and most importantly, don't make your eyes bleed with gaudy / over the top graphics)