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What Matt I. saw:
Category: 4
Result: Back of pack
I pre-rode this course last monday, and it sure was a lot flatter
than Patterson Pass!
I raced in the cat 4's and my race was scheduled to start at 815.
I got there at about 715 and there was a HUGE line at registration. It
didn't amuse me to see that the bathroom line was even longer. I
expected to see a delayed start with the lines being this long so I
thought I would have time for a bit of a warm up. When I got my number,
I went right to the bathroom line. Finished that, now I had about 20
minutes. I caught Richard on the way back to my car. I was glad to see
him. Mike Z was also there, and he would be representing us in the
Master 4/5. Richard said we had about 20 mins or so...
Got my stuff together and we were off about 15 minutes late.
I was going to try to use the 1st lap as a warm up. When we got off, it
was a nice pace and I found many people talking and chatting. Many teams
were represented. Alto Velo had a strong showing and MacGuire. I stayed
right near the front and wanted to resist doing any hard work out in the
wind. Richard was right there in the front and we all stayed together
until the first climb.
There was a feed zone just at the bottom of the
climb. I didn't get a bottle the first lap because I had pletny of
water. I noticed a lot were surging ahead trying to get away. I quickly
caught up and we stayed togehter. The climb is very short but it really
got hot in that area.
On the flats we slowed down and it was like this until we got around to
the frontage road just after the finish line. I could almost say that
the race was boring at this point. The pace was so slow. It was bad
enough that I was behind a guy who kept spitting. His spit kept going in
my direction. I had to move around. Geez, where's the pack etiqutte?
There was almost no attacks and if there was one the person let up
right away. Some AV guy was trying to set the pace hard but he was
quickly worn out. Towards the second climb I was going to get a water
bottle. So many people were slowing trying to get a bottle! At the same
time we had a lot of people surging again. My legs were starting to feel
it a bit...
I got to the top of the hill slightly off the back.
Coming out on the
flat I found myself in a small group of 6. We all starting talking about
forming a pace line to chase the pack. It worked very well. I was happy
to get my HR up a bit, and we caught the bunch about a few miles later.
When then rested. The bunch looked to be about 25 riders. I was a bit
bothered that the pace slowed down again. It would give the stragglers
more of a chance to catch up.
On the frontage road, I felt a tap on my
right side. It was Richard. Great!
He asked me if the front was the "front" I said, yup that's it.
We all stayed together until the feed zone. I took two bottles for this
last lap. I think I might have taken something that was for another team
because it had some sports drink in it. AND, it was cold. That's not
Velo Promo stuff. It was nice to have especially for the last climb.
The
last climb was pretty hard. I was in the back to start. I slowly drifted
back as the pack crested. On the downhill I rested a bit too long and
wasn't able to catch up.
Coming out the flats, I was solo. I saw another guy up ahead. I got to
him and we worked together for a good number of miles before my legs
starting protesting. I ate a gel and drank water, bu that time the guy
decided to go on his own. I went into TT mode and just pushed a big gear
all the way home.
I'm guessing I was about 20th, from the count I made when I was in the
bunch. It was a good race. Its evident that I need more power and speed
on the hills.
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What Richard saw:
Category: 4
Result: Off the back
Winters was hot and hard, though we started off relatively sedately. The
initial ride to the loop is supposed to be neutral, but a McGuire rider
wasn't listening and attacked at the whistle. He stayed off the front
for a good while, but people were not letting him get too far in front.
Both he and some of his team mates got some grief for that attack.
First time up the climb and I was holding my own until the steep section
leading up the hairpin. I started to slip backwards, reaching the back
of the group round the hairpin. It does ease off after the hairpin so I
was able to bury myself to hang on, made up some ground on the descent
and was part of the general regrouping which occurred afterwards. On
this stretch the McGuire riders further endeared themselves to the bunch
by attacking across the centre line with an on-coming car.
The second time up the hill was not good. Some guys pushed through the
feed zone while most people (including me) took bottles and gaps opened.
I rode at my pace up the climb which lasts about 2 miles in total
including some downhill stretches. A couple of riders crashed on the
descent, one of them was a McGuire rider.
Once back onto the flat it was a matter of getting the head down to
chase. A group coalesced but it took a lot of cajoling on my part to get
the guys to work well together. At this stage the lead group was well
out of sight. Eventually we got things rotating pretty steadily and our
average speed was pretty good.
Our group caught some stragglers who stuck with us and shed riders who
couldn't. We averaged about 7 guys, with maybe 5 really contributing to
the chase at any one time. Approaching the end of lap 2 one rider
commented that he though he saw the bunch up ahead. To be honest, I
wasn't looking that far up the road. We lost some riders at the end of
lap 2, but that was their loss. Once onto the road which parallels 505,
we could clearly see the bunch and it was clear that we were catching
them. We got back on after about 30 minutes of chasing, and we were
happy about it.
There wasn't much time to rest after catching the bunch as the pace
picked up not long after, but I did get a chance to say hello to Matt.
Once we got back onto the rollers prior to the climb, I was again in
difficulty and it wasn't long before I and several members of my chase
group were dropped. By this stage it was very hot and I suffered up the
climb one final time. At the hairpin this time up there was someone
offering to spray us with water from a garden hose! Heaven!
I rode most of the way back to the finish with one of the riders who
helped in the earlier chase. We rode steady, sometimes chatting along
the way. Of course, we did contest sprint at the end.
Overall, I am disappointed with being dropped on the climbs, but am
pleased with how hard I worked in the chase to get back on. In total, I
rode almost 33 minutes above LT - a very hard workout for me.
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What Mike Z. saw:
Category: M35+ 4/5
Result: Back of pack
I'll keep all of this short. I was fine the first time up the hill, got
gapped while getting water at the feed zone, caught back up only to get
dropped. After the descent, I was 30 seconds back working with a few other
people to bring the group back. With 2.5 miles to go, we were probably only
15 seconds back, but that is when the pack picked up the pace. I have no
idea where I finished.
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