I’m
fortunate to have been able to race many downtown Criterium races in awesome
cities in North America: Chicago, Vancouver (CAN), Charlotte, Athens,
Minneapolis, St. Louis, Dallas or Austin to just name a few. But none of these
Crits have such a historic backdrop like the Red Bull Last Stand races on
October 15 in San Antonio as we literally got to race around The Alamo and the
site of the famous “Battle of the Alamo” - fought almost exactly 180 years
earlier back in 1836.
The
new event combined the more and more popular fixie-on-road (‘Fixed’) racing
with traditional road bike races (Geared) for men and women and a total purse
of $20,000 thanks to Red Bull and their efforts to bring something new and
exciting to downtown San Antonio.
The
week of the race I decided to just focus on the Geared race since it has been a
while that I’ve ridden my track bike (especially on the open road) and I
figured my best chances would be doing a Twilight Crit on a short, technical
course in the late evening. Just like the ‘Fixed’ races all “roadies” had to do
qualifying heats in the afternoon in order to advance to the Final. That was
basically doing one or two “hot laps” on the race course while a timing chip
determined your placing in the starting grid for the evening’s main event if
you made it in the Top50 in qualifying. I came in 9th or so but that
really didn’t matter so much as races like these are not pure speed alone. The
races were all held in an Elimination format just like on the velodrome where
the last rider crossing the finish line was pulled by the officials on every
lap. This made the race itself actually a bit more exciting and interesting and
maybe for some spectators confusing.
I
believe we had 48 riders in the Geared Final which meant we would set out for 48
laps on the barely 900m long course with 5 or 6 turns and a wide but 180 degree
final turn over some somewhat smooth “Texas bricks” every lap. After a short
solo-flyer by Davis Dombroswki (RBM) for a prime - and everyone gotten to know
the course and lines at race-speed in the pack - we still had 38 laps or so to
go. At that point I pinned it hard through one of the tight spots on the course
just before Turn #3. It was just out of pure instinct since we weren’t going super-fast
and I wanted to draw out some other contenders instead of only racing in a big
group and having to sprint every lap making sure you’re not last wheel and get
eliminated. To my surprise, I was able to establish a decent gap, first 5, then
10, then 15 seconds. I knew I had decent legs when warming up earlier on the
rollers but I sure thought that eventually a few other guys would join me up
front. But not so quick, first I had built a solid 25-30 second gap or so with 20
or 25 laps to go riding at TT pace when – BAM! – I found myself on the ground
after sliding out in that wide but 180 degree final turn (VIDEO here!). While I fell and slid
on my right side on the bricks (to the “Aww” and “Ohh” of the people watching)
I realized this is going to be bad, real bad but knew I needed to get up ASAP! So I grabbed my
bike and got right back up, jumped on and kept pushing on (to my luck, my bike & body was okay besides some scuffs and "road rash" all over my right side). By the time I came
back to Turn #1 after the S/F line I didn’t see the field yet so I knew I had only lost maybe 10seconds of
my lead. With the help of the extra added adrenaline I kept riding hard while
telling myself: “That was really dumb:
you’re off the front solo, nobody else around you and you cause the only crash of the
entire race yourself - in front of all the people”. The nature of course (twisty and some dark spots)
kept being my best aid as I made sure to try enter a turn before the field gets
to the previous turn - “out of sight, out of mind”.
Towards
the end of the race I definitely started to get a bit nervous as the group (or
what was left from the field) was closing in more and more and at one point the
gap was only 7 seconds. But the fact that it was still an Elimination format
and guys were worried of who’s going to get which Top 10 place rather than
focusing on chasing me down kept motivating me to keep riding a hard pace and that
sure helped me to stay away until the end. In the last 2 laps I realized I had
won as the gap opened up again to 12 or 15 seconds and I could enjoy the crowd
and seeing some of my friends along the course.
This
was my last big race of the year and I’m very happy to be able to close it out
with a win for our small, yet very successful Elbowz squad in attendance that
night: Teammate Colin Strickland dominated the Fixed race (Solo Win) earlier
that night and my other “elbro” Tony Baca helped me tremendously to seal the
win by “guarding” the peloton while I was off the front solo and finishing 8th
place himself. Gracias amigo!
I
was told the next day that about 15,000 people came out to watch the races that
night and there’s talk of a similar race like this in 2017 and 2018 which is great news for Texas cycling. So big thanks to Red
Bull, promoter Ravi Rajcoomar, and City Council Roberto Treviño for making this
happen and bringing exciting bike racing to downtown San Antonio!
And
for the number geeks, here's my SRM data: 52:30min, 345W NP, 328W avg. P, IF: 1.04, TSS: 94.6, avg. HR 182bpm,
avg. 98rpm, 1036KJ, avg. 26mph. Link to power file here)
last lap shenanigans
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| Red Bull Last Stand Geared Race podium with Daniel Holloway (l) and Travis McCabe (r) (photo: Red Bull Events)
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