The first big road race of the year in Snelling (East of Turlock), was highlighted by perhaps the best team performance of the ACJR's. With four racers (Alex, Spence, Skyler and Jack) racing in the Junior 15-16 race, the team was able to employ real race tactics with great success. The end result: a stellar 2nd place for Alex, who is well on his way to an Cat 3 upgrade.
The story starts the night before, where the boys discussed how they were going to handle breaks. Jack and Skyler planned to catch all the breaks so that Alex could stay fresh for a strong finish. Spence was also going to try and see if could contend for a placing.
The way it actually happened was almost to plan - the race started out with 17 racers, so the AC team had a solid group to defend their position. After a fast start, the pack stayed together for the first lap, then the attacks started coming on the short climbs. Skyler and Jack pulled the pack up to on every major attack. This continued until the attacks began subsiding, but in the second lap, another strong attack went out, with Alex and Spence chasing it down.
Once the group saw that the AC boys were going to chase down any attack, they gradually gave up trying to attack and by the third and final attack, the field stayed together (except for a few stragglers). On the final turn, Alex and two of the stronger racers were at the front, with Alex staying on their wheel as they entered the uphill finish straight. It came down to a three-way sprint, with Alex getting a solid 2nd place. Spence took 8th place with Skyler and Jack finishing with the pack, but having done their tremendous work in making sure that Alex was well positioned for his finish.
All around, a great day for the AC Juniors. Bob raced in a very fast Junior 17-18 group, but finished after two laps - a bee sting was the final straw for him today.
The AC Masters were well represented in the Elite 4 race, with 5 racers (Blair, Peter, Jeff, Bill and Rich). Peter had the strongest finish, with Bill behind him. Blair was racing strongly, but suffered from two flats which ended his race. Jeff and Rich both experienced "early season" racing, and made it through four of the five laps before throwing in the towel.
The weather, which had been threatening rain all week, turned out to be just fine - mid 50's and cloudy, then burning off for Bob's noon-time race. The course was wet with some areas of standing water 8-12" deep, which meant every 20 minutes your shoes got a good soaking.
This is a great start to the season, and we can all look forward to seeing how the boys' tactics play out in the coming weeks.
Photos of the race are here.
Tomorrow's race is the Merced Criterium - Alex, Spence and Bob are racing.
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