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What Mike Z. saw:
Category: 4
Result: Mid-pack
I didn't plan on doing this race until Friday night when I decided my best options for Saturday were to ride by myself or do the race. Since Richard and Carlos were planning on racing, I decided to join them.
Richard and Carlos saved me a spot right in front for the start. I had the privelege of leading the race for the first 2 miles. Nobody wanted to do anything before the first time up the hill. I was soft-pedaling at 20 mph (on a slight downhill). After making the right turn to head towards the hill, I pulled over and let one guy pass and got back onto his wheel.
The first time up the hill was probably too fast for me. I stayed in 2nd or 3rd position and just followed the first wheel. This meant I was either in front of the pack or off the front by a few seconds all the way up and through the windmill area. If I had it to do again, I would have started where I did and allowed myself to drift back in the pack up the hill to conserve some energy. The rest of the first lap was fairly uneventful for me. There were a couple of guys who flatted with catastrophic failures of the tube, i.e. loud bangs.
I saw Richard as we passed the start line at the 15 mile mark. I told him that I planned to get to the very front before the second time up the hill because I knew I would be drifting back. Richard was kind enough to pull me to the front at which time another fellow pulled in front of him and pulled hard up to the base of the big hill. I drifted a long way back during the second climb and lost contact with the lead group of about 10. I continued to work with other riders until we formed larger and larger groups and had a really good paceline going at times and finally latched back on to the lead group. This lap was really hard for me. Looking at my HR data, I saw that from the time I started the climb to the point we caught the lead group, my HR was almost continually over 180.
I tried to stay with the lead group the 3rd time up the hill, but there was no hope. I settled down into a comfortable pace for me. At the top, I picked up the pace and caught a few riders. I worked together with one other guy almost the whole way around the 3rd lap. The last time up the hill, I was basically with that guy and one other who caught us. Half way up the hill the last time, I was putting distance on both of them, but then they turned up the pace and I couldn't hang with either of them. It was a very hard day. My altimeter showed almost 4000 feet of climbing for the race.
I haven't seen the results, but I wouldn't be surprised by placing anywhere from 25th to 60th. I just don't have any idea how many people were together the last time up the hill and how many of them were in front or behind me. Garry, thanks for the support at the feed station. Mark, good to see you out there even if it was on the wrong type of bike.
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What Richard saw:
Category: 4
Result: Off the back
As Mike indicated, I rode Wente. I started out near the front of the bunch
together with Carlos and watched Mike sitting on the front taking things
nice and easy.
Things got tougher when we turned onto Carroll Road for the first climb. I
made it through the finish with the group, but began to find the going
really tough on North Flynn Road and slipped out the back before the 90°
right corner. A group of varying composition chased, and we were not that
far behind the bunch on the descent. We slipped back a little on Patterson
Pass Road, but gained ground on the descent of Cross, and finally were able
to get back into the group after the drag on Greenville.
I found a nice spot in the middle of the bunch, rested, and then sought out
Mike to see how he was doing. I knew that I would be out the back on the
climb again, so I offered my services to get Mike to the front on Altamont
Pass Road. This I did, and had help to keep the pace quite high from
another rider. As we turned onto Carroll Road again, I changed down, and
rapidly exited the rear of the bunch, ending up in another off-the-back
group.
We got mixed in for a while with the Masters group from behind, but they
conclusively dropped up the third time up Carroll. Biker Bob joined me for
lap 3, and I picked up a bottle from Garry. I realised that I hadn't been
drinking enough, as I felt a lot better after emptying the bottle I
discarded at the feed zone, and actually climbed quite strongly this time.
We were positively screaming down the descent of North Flynn towards the
bridge and I saw a rider coming the other way towards the bridge.
Fortunately, he was paying attention to the speed of our approach and
pulled off the road leaving me with the whole road to work with and
therefore just enough room to get through the corner safely. Turns out that
it was Mark on his mountain bike and he was contemplating whether I was
going to make the corner or not. I missed him, just.
And that was Wente, another hilly road race with another out-the-back
experience, but I did ride the full distance.
I got to bed late on Saturday night, so was no state to ride the crit on
Sunday, even though I had planned to do so.
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