Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Not DFL at San Bruno

The results are in

29 0 John Murphy SAN FRANCISCO,CA 00:23:32.00 196340 123 Webcor/alto Velo

4 guys even less fit than me decided to enter. Had I done the smart thing and entered the 4's, I would have been 21/22, unless I managed to outsprint the guy who finished in 23:30.

Amusingly, my thought is that I went out "too fast", something I would not have thought was possible. When the pack started at a pace that wasn't completely leaving me behind, I moved up quickly to try to suss out a reasonable wheel to get on for the flatter section. Then I immediately cracked - before it got flat. Several riders passed me, and when it got flat the 2nd group was just 15 yards in front of me, but I couldn't close the gap (and provided a good bridge for someone who was on my wheel). If I had just settled in and calmly got to the flat section with the third group I might have gotten a better ride to the top, as it was I rode alone for a lot of the flat section and then got a ride from the guy who finished 27th (who put a minute into me on Radio Road).

The steep section of Radio Road showed my current weight level. 10 pounds lighter (and probably stronger) I would really muscle through that section, as it was I really suffered and they had to urge me to sprint through the line as I was being caught by one of the later groups. It was rough. But I got out there, and like I said, not DFL.

I celebrated with a nice present which I'll discuss next...

2 comments:

Frank Irwin said...

Coulda been worse. If you had raced with the 45-99, you would have been 33/35.

You're welcome

djconnel said...

Nice job, John! Seriously, San Bruno attracts a tough crowd, and no shame in finishing where you did.

WRT the 45+ -- San Bruno had staged starts this year by category. This is because with the timing chips they were more confident in their ability to quickly resolve the timing (it still took them several days to have results posted on-line, though: thanks to Chris Phipps for posting photos of the printed sheets). By all accounts the 45's went out strong, and with the drafting benefit on Guadalupe Canyon, that really helped produce good times in that group.

So in this case, comparing times across categories must be done with care.