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What Mark saw:
Category: Masters 35+ 4/5
Result: Off the back
Huge Field in the 4/5 35+ of 100 riders and a very cold and blustery day. As to be expected the field split first time up the climb and Fremont riders ended up in Various groups. The group I was in worked well together and we started reeling people in. I felt very strong on the stretch past the Labs and probably did too much work. Felt OK second time up the main climb and my group stayed together. Third time up the climb the pace had been high along Altamont pass and when I got out of the saddle on the climb my legs both locked up. I had to sit down a limit the damage. Once out of the group I went backwards very Quickly (nasty cold headwind) and didnt get caught by anyone or see anyone until Cross road where I was caught by a rider from my group.
We worked together hard up till the final time up the climb where he rode away from me. I finished about 60th.
The Wente is a very hard race if you are not well trained.
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What Santiago saw:
Category: Masters 35+ 4/5
Result: Mid-pack
Oh well, Wente RR, it was another hard day on the saddle.
It didn't start right, since we had to stand there at the start line for 20-30min, waiting to get going, with that cold weather all the warming up before the race pretty much disappear from my legs. Then I assumed that, well everybody is cold now, so we should take it easy on the first lap... WRONG!!!! they went like hell and we were doing 29m/h before hitting the first hill.
With 100 guys in the field, next thing I know there was already a group getting away at the front. First mistake, I wasn't at the front or close on the first climb.... and then another group is gone, so I'm there in a third group, not good, in the first lap, in any case we were like seven guys chasing that second group, where Carl was, by the way, good job staying there. We managed to stay pretty close to this group so I could see how Carl started coming off the back. Pretty soon we were picking him up.
By the time we finished the first lap, we still had that second group in sight , and there was people coming off the back, at that time I decided to bridge to this guys, so I speeded up trying to get a reaction from the other guys in my group, WRONG!!!! again.... when I look back there were only two guys, Carl and this other guys, the rest just dropped and quit... there goes my chase .... second lap was pretty much more of the same, picking up guys from our group and also same Cat3, and right after completing the lap they will all drop off the race, but this other guy and Carl. On the third lap I lost Carl, and it was this guy and myself for the rest of the lap, I ended up dropping the guy on the last lap.
Anyway, a very cold fast start and not being close to the front on the first climb pretty much did it for me. It also did it for Sunday, since all that cold weather broke loose a cold that I was fighting, so Saturday afternoon I ended up sick like a pig... so I decided to take Sunday off to recover. Hope you guys had a great time on Sunday.
BTW, we had a good group on Saturday, 4 of us on the same race: Alan, Carl, Mark and myself.
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What Alan saw:
Category: Masters 35+ 4/5
Result: Mid-pack
What looked like a miserable morning actually turned into a (somewhat) nice day. Yeah, the wind was miserable, but that wind was my motivation (as in, "If I don't stay locked onto my group I am toast!"). The long delay at the start was a slight hinderance, but to be honest I didn't warm-up properly anyway so it didn't make much difference. We all hoped for a gradual increase in intensity, but when will that ever happen?
The field was strung out from the beginning as the super motivated riders shot out, and the first climb was a brutal awakening for the legs and lungs. For some reason my mouth and throat were totally dry from the start to the top of the first climb. I was in the front third of the field going into the ascent, but from the way the leaders were climbing I knew I couldn't hang with the first group. I looked back and saw the field strung out down the hill and then felt comfortable riding a strong (but not absurd) pace. After the crest, a group started forming (the third back?) that included Mark King and I, and my friend Steve Turner who rides for Alto Velo(he rode with us a few times during the winter). Steve told me later that he rode with the lead group almost all the way up the first climb, but went anerobic and had a mini-bonk and had to watch while folks passed him by. I caught him shortly after the overpass, and that is when we started to group up with about 15 or so riders.
The group got more and more organized during the course of the first lap, and before we were out of the hills we were trading positions in front, and on the flats we were in a rotating paceline, although I think only half of the group was actually working. The second lap we verbally committed to stay together, which worked very well. We maintained the group's integrity for the entire second lap, although some gaps did form, and I led one closing charge that was successful. The tird time up the hill it was definitely harder to stick together; if you could hang fine, if not - drop. This is where we lost Mark.
The third lap was definitely the hardest for me. The group was splitting in two as we approached the 90 degree left turn up hill into the wind, and I was about 30 feet back. I know if I didn't close I was toast into the wind (flashbacks to Snelling!), so I just put my head down, stared at the pavement and worked for all I had. I was able to latch on to Steve Turner's wheel just as we made the turn uphill, and recovered in the lee while we made the slow short climb. I think that is the one part of the race I liked the best. On the second part of the backside the group finally did split into two, with the front section latching onto some Senior 4s. Somewhere here we picked up Carl, who was a strong addition. After we hit the flats I resolved to suck some tire and get ready for the last climb. Carl pulled a lot during this section, speeding us home. I wasn't worried about the final climb, figuring that it was just a gut ride to the top. As I made the final turn up the hill I could see Santiago about a quarter mile ahead. Carl and I climbed together for a while, and then my final wheel-sucking paid off as I was able to break away to the finish, with Gary reminding me to "Get out of the saddle!"
Mark, Carl, Santiago and I regrouped with Gary at the finish, and had a nice spin back to the staging area.
A very nice race.
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What Garry saw:
Category:
My day at the RR was quite interesting. I overslept (nothing new there) so I went straight to the feed zone instead of meeting with the team for a pre-race pep talk. As I entered the circuit half an hour late the pro's had just turned up the hill. There was a delayed start due to a fight between two riders and a police action. Their speed was impressive, 24-26 mph on the lower slopes and I could see some early attacks going already. I found a reasonable location in the zone and waited for the our boyz to roll past.
On the first lap I did not expect to be handing up any water, but one fella did stop in front of me to tighten his rear QR. I gave him a big running push to send him on his way and had a nice fuzzy feeling of helping a fellow racer . I scoped our guys bikes making some mental notes of how many drinks they were carrying. Sensibly they all had double bottles. I thought I would not be needed until the 2nd lap at the earliest. The day was not warm and the wind was blowing. I was happy to retreat to the car after my duties were complete.
On the next lap I was surprised that Kent actually gave me a full bottle. I should have refused to take it.
EVEN ON COLD DAYS YOU SWEAT AND LOSE A LITER OF FLUIDS PER HOUR...MINIMUM.
Anyway on laps two and three no-one from the team took the offerings I had, but I did give two other anonymous riders a bottle each. I believe, like Mike Z has found out, that what goes around comes around.
All the guys finished strong and I was very pleased that there were no DNF's, unlike my two previous attempts at this race.
What I learned was that the team should drink more in races, myself included.
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