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What Garry saw:
Category: 3
Result: Back of pack
Don't know why I was keen to do this race, a race I have never done before, but I was highly motivated to cross the bay to the Peninsula foothills in Brisbane / South San Francisco to taste the delights of a Pillarcitos cycle sports promotion.
Our race, the cat 3 event was at 14:00, so I was able to have a lazy morning, which was much appreciated. Upon arrival at 12:00, I quickly met up with Ziggy and we set up under the shade of a tree for a good warm-up. Chris, Ruben and Jorge wandered by on occasion and the banter was it's usual derogatory self. After a solid 50 minutes on Zig's rollers, we were ready to roll, after remembered at the last moment to throw in the race wheels.
The course is a 1.7 mile loop, half downhill from the start/ finish line, and half uphill. Road surface is excellent, with some bot dots, but nothing to really freak out about. Right from the start, we were rolling downhill on a long sweeping right hander, with the speed building to about 30mph. This was followed by a left hand 90 degree, again at about 30, and slightly off camber, but it still felt safe. and then a long, straight, tailwind descent, which was 53x12 at times and really good fun. At the end of this long straight is the only real technical section, a right hand turn at speed, with the road narrowing down to 1 lane. The organisers had built up the hay bales two high (these replaced metal barriers from last year) and the pack was cautious but fast through here. The road basically rises from this corner all the way back to the finish line, a 3/4 mile climb with about 150 feet vertical gain. The real issue was not the grade, but the headwind. By the time our race started, it was blowing hard in our faces or on our shoulder all the way up. We had 50 minutes, that would probably translate to twelve times up the hill.
On the first lap, Zig was in a 3 man break by mistake, he was just following in 2nd wheel and they rode away from the peloton. I got on the front immediately, alongside Nate Shaw of Garden City and we rode a soft tempo. No one came around us, but the trio ahead did not move away either. Over the top the escapees gap got a little bigger, maybe 15 seconds, but the AV, who had many in the pack, but no one in the break went to the front and started to work.
After 3 laps, they came back on the hill and we all crested in a group. The following laps saw many small attacks and small groups attempt to go up the road, and Ziggy was riding like a maniac, getting in ALL of them. Several ascents were pretty hard, but no really hard attack's, at least from what I could see, were made. If they were, they soon came back.
So it came down to a field sprint after the Stanford team had put in a big lead out effort. There plan was good, but they ran out of steam, and an AV rider went really hard in the last two hundred and gapped the field to roll in uncontested. The last time up the hill my heart rate was at 177, 7 over my LT, and I was there for a long time. On top of the previous laps efforts, it all proved too much and I drifted out the back with about 300 yards to go. Ziggy was at the business end, but I think was tapped out by the effort he had made, and could not make it into the points.
Anyway, a good race, a hard course and I'll be back.
39th out of 48 finishers, 70 started.
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What Chris saw:
Category: 4
Result: Mid-pack
I decided at the last moment that I would do both races this weekend. I had felt pretty sick on Friday but still wanted to race because I thought it would be fun. I arrived at 7:15 for my 8:50 race so I had plenty of time to register, warm up and BS with the guys racing the 5s.
They were off and I started my warm up. My heart rate was extremely high. I spent the first 10 min spinning with my HR in level 4, about 10-15 beats below LT. This seemed really bad to me. I did an effort and started my warm up when I thought to myself that I did not see any other 4s there. Only old dudes. So I hopped off the bike and checked the start time. 11:00. What an idiot.
A few races passed and I started my warm up over again. Still my HR was way too high but it was too late to wuss out. I started the race in the pack. I was feeling ok and I knew that there was a nasty turn at the bottom of the hill that I did not want any part of. So for the remainder of the race I would only be first or nearly last going into the turn. You don’t get too far behind because as Gary mentioned, it pretty much turns upward after that.
The last time up the hill I was about in the middle and did not have the legs to go past anyone. My average HR was 177 and I found a new max of 185. Not terrible for felling weak from the day before.
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