Kalaeloa Road Race
This past Sunday's Cambio/Core Hawaii Kalaeloa - Aloha State Games Road Race was the first mass start cycling road race of the year. As usual, it was held on the fast and flat 3.5 mile loop course in Kalaeloa - formally Barbers Point Naval Air Station. Different for this year was the start/finish taking place on the former "backside" of the course. This made the dash for the finishing sprint a LOT safer as there was no longer a 90 degree turn needing to be taken at +30mph. But, it did make the finish sprint much harder as it was now smack into the persistent trades that were blowing all day.
Combined Senior and Master Men 1/2/3 Race: Amazingly and VERY difficult to do on this course, 3 master men managed to breakaway AND stay away for over 30+ miles and the win! At the time the break went off the front, I think most figured it was way to early for it to succeed as it was windy. But as Eric Dekker knows, you can never tell unless you try.
As 3 teams were represented in the break: Tony Lang of Tradewinds (my team), Carl Brooks of QuickRelease, and the amazing Ray Brust of Boca, the chase was basically left up to Cambio/Core Hawaii who had 4 riders in the pack including Malaekahana TT Champion Ricky Armstrong, Cycle to the Sun co-Winner Jiri Skrobanek, strong riders Jon Mina and Jon Akana, and, several solo-team riders including Tai Blechta, one of the fastest triathletes in the State, and top ex-Hawaii rider Mike Okura who was visiting from the mainland.
But as sometimes happens in races, the chase was brisk but never fully organized into a rotating paceline, and with 3 teams not contributing, the break ended up staying away with Ray Brust out running Tony Lang for the win. I guess it shouldn't be all that unbelievable though, when you consider the riders, horsepower, and savvy the breakaway had.
While back in the pack, though, I know the race could have been harder but several of the strongest riders like Mike Zagorski and my teammate Thomas Novikoff now had their hands (spokes?) tied since they couldn't really chase down their own teammates. For them, I'm sure it was sort of like bringing a ton of fireworks to the party, yet not being able to really light any of them off.
As for my own performance, I usually have a decent sprint, unfortunately, my plans were too big for my legs! Coming thru the final turn and carrying a lot of speed, I decided in an instant to drop the hammer right there and try and hold it to the finish. Unfortuantely, combined with the headwind I mentioned earlier and how my legs actually were, the hammer dropping was just way too early. This in turn, though, sort of forced everyone else to go early too and from that point on, it was just a matter of who could hold out to the finish with my friend Jiri besting everyone in the dwindled pack.
On a good point, my new custom Ti bike performed like a serious race machine as the stiffness in the front end really made cornering at race speeds fun again. In race trim and with my 303 tubulars mounted, the bike comes in at a very spiffy 16.4 pounds!
Other Races: The fields in the other races were also VERY large and they ended up splitting the Master Men 4/5 and Senior Men 4/5 races which was suppose to be one big field of about 60+ riders! I was really surprised that morning to see many of my strong age-group triathlete friends from the former TriMoving team racing. They would ususally never do a road race but I guess since their "new" team, Cambio/Core Hawaii was sponsoring the race, many of them decided to do it! Talking to Daryl and "Fishman" and Darren and Gail Hamada after the race, I could tell they had a lot of fun. Unfortunately for my ski partner Cal, he didn't get the full "fun" experience as he was caught up in one of the crashes in that race ;-(.
Also to my surprise were about 10 or so racers from Japan's Maritime Self Defense Force and even one racer from Korea's Naval Force? They said they were stationed in Yokosuka in Japan and were in Hawaii for some naval exercises. Those guys should be congratulated as they all RODE out that morning to the race and also had to ride back to their ship! They must have ended up putting in about 60 miles or so. I gave them a water bottle I won as a door prize.
In the end, kudos must be sent to my good friend David Lum who sacrificed racing to be the Race Promoter. If not for David, his wife and the rest of the race support crew, corner watchers, course sweepers/preppers, and sponsors, this race would have never happened. Awesome job.
Combined Senior and Master Men 1/2/3 Race: Amazingly and VERY difficult to do on this course, 3 master men managed to breakaway AND stay away for over 30+ miles and the win! At the time the break went off the front, I think most figured it was way to early for it to succeed as it was windy. But as Eric Dekker knows, you can never tell unless you try.
As 3 teams were represented in the break: Tony Lang of Tradewinds (my team), Carl Brooks of QuickRelease, and the amazing Ray Brust of Boca, the chase was basically left up to Cambio/Core Hawaii who had 4 riders in the pack including Malaekahana TT Champion Ricky Armstrong, Cycle to the Sun co-Winner Jiri Skrobanek, strong riders Jon Mina and Jon Akana, and, several solo-team riders including Tai Blechta, one of the fastest triathletes in the State, and top ex-Hawaii rider Mike Okura who was visiting from the mainland.
But as sometimes happens in races, the chase was brisk but never fully organized into a rotating paceline, and with 3 teams not contributing, the break ended up staying away with Ray Brust out running Tony Lang for the win. I guess it shouldn't be all that unbelievable though, when you consider the riders, horsepower, and savvy the breakaway had.
While back in the pack, though, I know the race could have been harder but several of the strongest riders like Mike Zagorski and my teammate Thomas Novikoff now had their hands (spokes?) tied since they couldn't really chase down their own teammates. For them, I'm sure it was sort of like bringing a ton of fireworks to the party, yet not being able to really light any of them off.
As for my own performance, I usually have a decent sprint, unfortunately, my plans were too big for my legs! Coming thru the final turn and carrying a lot of speed, I decided in an instant to drop the hammer right there and try and hold it to the finish. Unfortuantely, combined with the headwind I mentioned earlier and how my legs actually were, the hammer dropping was just way too early. This in turn, though, sort of forced everyone else to go early too and from that point on, it was just a matter of who could hold out to the finish with my friend Jiri besting everyone in the dwindled pack.
On a good point, my new custom Ti bike performed like a serious race machine as the stiffness in the front end really made cornering at race speeds fun again. In race trim and with my 303 tubulars mounted, the bike comes in at a very spiffy 16.4 pounds!Other Races: The fields in the other races were also VERY large and they ended up splitting the Master Men 4/5 and Senior Men 4/5 races which was suppose to be one big field of about 60+ riders! I was really surprised that morning to see many of my strong age-group triathlete friends from the former TriMoving team racing. They would ususally never do a road race but I guess since their "new" team, Cambio/Core Hawaii was sponsoring the race, many of them decided to do it! Talking to Daryl and "Fishman" and Darren and Gail Hamada after the race, I could tell they had a lot of fun. Unfortunately for my ski partner Cal, he didn't get the full "fun" experience as he was caught up in one of the crashes in that race ;-(.
Also to my surprise were about 10 or so racers from Japan's Maritime Self Defense Force and even one racer from Korea's Naval Force? They said they were stationed in Yokosuka in Japan and were in Hawaii for some naval exercises. Those guys should be congratulated as they all RODE out that morning to the race and also had to ride back to their ship! They must have ended up putting in about 60 miles or so. I gave them a water bottle I won as a door prize.In the end, kudos must be sent to my good friend David Lum who sacrificed racing to be the Race Promoter. If not for David, his wife and the rest of the race support crew, corner watchers, course sweepers/preppers, and sponsors, this race would have never happened. Awesome job.
posted by dancedream2002 @ 9:25 PM
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