Report by:

• Mike Z.

Category: Masters 35+ Cat. 4
Result: Mid-pack

Special thanks to Lance. He took care of Paloma most of the day on Saturday so I could race.

Thanks to the painters too. Scott and I were scheduled to do it last Sunday, but it was raining in the morning when we were planning to go. I had already registered for this race by then. Liz and I will be doing something to help out for the Primavera.

Stage 1: Mtn Time Trial - 34th (yes 34th, read below) GC: 34th (argghhh)
Stage 2: Flat Time Trial - 6th (getting better) GC: 18th (moving up)
Stage 3: Criterium - 5th (and I crashed on the final turn)

FINAL GC: 13th (not bad, considering the rough beginning)

Winnings: $10 as a combination of Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea dollars for the 5th place in the Crypt

Weather: Absolutely perfect, sunny and warm

Stage 1

An excellent course. 2 big hills and a lot of rolling downhill. I was one of the few to use aero bars, but they were of great help. The start line was about 2 miles from the parking area at Half Moon Bay High School. We grouped at the high school and were required to be escorted through town by a motorcycle to the start line. Everything seemed good, I was getting psyched up as I warmed up before my start. I rolled up to the start line 2 minutes before I had to start, turned around, went 50 m and promptly flatted with 90 seconds to go before my start time. I brought spares, but they were back in the parking lot 2 miles away so I fixed the flat, but this stage was already over for me. I didn't noodle through the climbs, but I didn't do a real time trial effort either. I wanted to save myself for later and I was only on 80 lbs of pressure in the tires since I had to inflate with the frame pump. My actual time was about 50 minutes and 30 seconds which would have put me around 10th, but my official time was 57 min and 30-some seconds. I was pissed, because I was being very careful so that I would not get a flat since there was no support. I put the tires with new tubes in them on the bike 2 days earlier. Rode twice on them to make sure things were good, had tuffy strips in the tires. Oh well, I keep telling myself that at least I didn't do it on one of the downhill hairpin turns. Things could have been messy. There were no really bad turns other than the 3 hairpins and these were all marked really well.

Stage 2

A fairly level 7 mile course that had about a mile of gentle climbing to it (2-4%). This was basically a 17.5 minute gut check. I pushed hard the whole way. I missed 5th place (and the podium) by only 1.1 seconds. I missed 2nd place by only 10 seconds so there was a fairly tight group from 2nd to 6th. 7th place was another 15 - 20 seconds back and the winner won by about 20 seconds. A pre-ride of this course would have saved some time since I braked for some blind corners that ended up not being as sharp as they appeared. Lance took a couple of pictures so I will get those uploaded later and send a couple to Richard.

Stage 3

THE COURSE: Gnarly, 0.55 miles with 6 turns. I'll try to explain them, but you really had to be there to understand. These were campus roads in and around a parking lot. The start/finish road was barely wide enough for 2 cars. Look at the website to see the course.

• Corner 1: 90 degree left turn. Narrow roads. Inside corner had a rain runoff grate. Just outside of that was a small dip (this was the line to choose), just outside of that was a bigger dip with rough pavement. This corner put several riders down.
• Corner 2: 90 degree right turn. Narrow, smooth and not much problem.
• Corner 3: Sweeping 90 degree right turn, rough pavement on the inside. No problem.
• Corner 4-5: Combined 90 degree right + 10 m straight + 90 degree left. The S-turn. Looked scary, but no problem.
There was a sweeping right turn that caused another 90 degree direction change, but was not really a turn.
• Corner 6: Very narrow, 90 degree right turn onto the finishing straight. I bit it here. Others did too in some of the other races.
• The finish came about 50 m from the last turn so position was everything. The sprint was uphill enough that I realized shifting down just before entering the turn would really help on the finishing sprint (if you remained on your bike).

The 3 breakaway riders got the GC bonus points. I was at the front of the rest of the group and started putting some pressure on to bridge the 10 second gap. I used the S-turn to my advantage. As soon as I got through it, I made a big move to lose the rest of the pack and started hammering to catch the break. I had one guy on my wheel. I got to within about 2 seconds of the break and asked him to pull through. He shook his head at me (after the race he told me that there was no way he could pull. He had worked to hard just to get on my wheel).

I cursed under my breath and put in the last effort needed to get onto the break. It took me about 2 laps to catch them. The 5 of us slowly increased the lead through the rest of the race. I didn't contest the bonus points on the 2nd prime lap (at 30 minutes) since I was already way back in GC. Winning this stage was more important so I wanted to conserve my energy. We had about 30 - 35 seconds on the field by the time the bell lap sounded.

I was fourth back, but resting and in decent position to contest. Going through the final corner at more than 30 mph, I started pedaling just a little too early. I clipped a pedal on the pavement which set me upright. I recovered, but there was no way to make the turn and the curb was too close. I saw a nice dirt patch on the other side and bailed over the top of the bike, sliding Pete Rose style. I jumped up as fast as I could, grabbed my bike, saw the chain was off and started running to the finish line. People yelled that I could just walk. I looked back and realized nobody was in site so I walked across the finish line holding my bike over my head. The stage winners wife has a good video of it and she said she would try to get a still for me.

Summary

Excellent race. Pilarcitos sports did a great job of organizing. Stage races are great because you only register once, and then get to race three times after merely signing in. Things were run in a timely, well organized fashion. The crit was great for me because I realized that I can actually corner fairly well now. I've been working on it at the Great America Parking Lot race and it payed off. Now I just have to wait before I start pedaling out of the corners. Too bad they didn't have a Sr. 4s category. We could have had a few more people racing. Back to top

Pictures

• Mike Z. starts stage 2.
• Mike Z. gets up to speed on stage 2.