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What Mike Z. saw:
Category: 5
Result: 3rd
I dedicate this past weekend of racing to the scientists who came up with the active ingredients in Immodium-AD, for without those or similar drugs, racing on Saturday would have been an even messy experience regardless of the weather. I curse the bad food I ate last Tuesday or Wednesday just as it has cursed me.
Weather report: Crappy, typical summer day on the coast of central California. See the picture.
Race report: This race had the toughest field I've been in since Sea Otter with a lot of good climbers. I managed to stay in the lead group of a dozen plus riders up the first climb of Haskins which ended with 12 of us together at the bottom. I noticed a few other riders (one Stanford guy in particular) that had taken a skid into the trees along the way down.
Attrition took out 4 other riders during the rollers at the bottom. I would attribute this to inexperienced riders trying to push a pacelineso fast that some of the guys were not able to keep up, felt uncomfortable or whatever (we were going 26+ mph through the rollers) How does Phil Liggett put it, I was in difficulty. The second crash took out the guy who was pushing this so hard so we slowed down a bit after that and kept it reasonable for Cat 5 level of riding.
Anyway, we had 8 going onto stage road. By the bottom of Haskins Hill, there was still 7 or 8 of us together. It was down to 4 at the 500 m mark when the eventual winner put the 12 pound mammoth sledge-hammer down on the rest of us. The vacuum he created propelled me into 3rd place, 30 m back from the second place rider who had crashed earlier. In that crash, the rider two places ahead of me in the paceline suddenly braked causing a chain reaction of front wheel to back wheel contact including me on the guy in front of me and the guy in back of me on my back wheel. He went down and had to chase for 8 miles to catch up and manage to get second (he must be strong).
Results: 3rd place, a nice medal and a Terry Dragonfly saddle with Titanium rails. I'm stoked.
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What Santiago saw:
Category: 4
Result: Mid-pack
Got up early and ready for a nice race down by the coast with a clear an sunny day and stoning views.... WRONG!!!! It was foggy, raining and all the roads wet, I couldn't believe it... oh well, I was there, so lets race... met with Ziggi, Mike, Alan and Richard (thanks a lot Richard for the support at the feed zone). I started my warm up on the trainer to stay as dry and warm as possible before the race, but the 15 mins that I rode around just before the start just got me completely wet, no much to do about it but keep moving to not get cold. At least it wasn't windy.
Ziggi and I did the Sr 4, Alan the Mr35 4/5 and Mike the Sr 5. Everything started pretty good, with the field taking it easy for the first few miles, then we hit Stage Rd, and right there we lost half of the field (75 started), then the down hill came and the were a few guys taking it way to easy and creating big gaps, so we had pretty much a single really long line going down the hill.
I stayed in the front and we were around 15 ahead and got caught by the other 15 or so going up 84. We got to Pescadero (got my refill, thanks Richard), and two groups formed again on this hill, with me on the second one this time, but we were really close, but again, the gap increased al little bit on the down hill, but we managed to regroup before the climb in the Stage rd, but the same thing happened again, and got regrouped on 84, and suddenly, another big field in front of us, the Sr 3, we just went by and throw some mud into their faces... Second time this happen, in Santa Nella we caught them and then they rode away, but this time we just went by, I guess I should upgrade, they go easier then the Sr 4... :-)).
Anyway here we go for the final climb up Pescadero, I move to the front and stayed in around 12th place up to 1km to go, but I was feeling the pain increasing with the pace.... I was climbing on my 39-17, I couldn't believe it, there is no way they can go faster.... WRONG!!!! they just accelerated, and I couldn't keep up and moved down to the back o the group of around 20, the others were already gone, and I hold that place to the finish line, I could see the guys in front of me really close, but couldn't accelerate any more, so finished around 5 secs or so behind the winner.... We average 21 m/hr for the race doing the 48 miles in 2:15 mins.
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What Alan saw:
Category: Masters 35+ 4/5
Result: Mechanical
Not much to report. I went over the night before and camped out so I wouldn't have to wake up too early. The weather was lousy, and I lost my front derailleur at the top of the first hill on Stage Road (the cable pulled out of the clamp bolt). So right away I was out of the race as the field pulled away and I spun in my 39-12 on the descent. I pulled into the pits after the first lap.
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