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Reports by:
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What Mike N. saw:
Category: 5
Result: Did not finish
Got to the race early, had a 15 minute warmup. The race started
neutralized. When we were free to roam, I stayed in the back until
half a mile to the first climb. I move towards the front and feeling
pretty confident that I'll make it with the pack.
I made it up through
both small climbs, but the hurt was more than I expected. Coming onto
84, there's a large tailwind which didn't allow much recovery. There
would always be surges in those rollers. A few miles to the feed zone
I start to move up the pack. I position myself mid-pack coming into
the feed zone, but the small climb puts me in the back of the pack. I
try to move up front, but the pack uses up the whole lane.
Going up
Haskins Hill I managed to stay with the pack half of the way. When I
saw the 1 km to go sign I ever so slightly drifted back with one other
rider. At 500 meters I knew I wouldn't be able to catch back on, so I
tried to keep a steady, hard pace.
On the downhill I caught up to two
riders, one being a cat 5. That 5 rider tried to pass a van, but there
was an official there and he got pulled over for a chit-chat. From
there I figured not to chase back to the pack because last year I was
in chase group of ~10 and we didn't even come close to the main pack.
After a while the 5 guy caught up but I told him to go on ahead. A few
minutes later two more 5s passed, then after a long time, 3 more
passed. By the time I waited for Oscar (btw he crashed) to head back
to the car, about 6 or 7 riders passed me. So given that there were 40
finishers, I would have been ahead those 6/7 riders and probably pass
a few more on the climb, just like last year's. A great way to finish
off being in the 5s...
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What Keith saw:
Category: M45+
Result: Off the back
Carpooled to the race with Oscar and Mike N.
After start of race, stayed with pack during rollers and then drifted
to the back. After being dropped, kept sight of two other riders to
catch. Finally caught these two riders midway on 84. Both riders
seemed reluctant to work together, so I forged ahead.
After Haskins Hill climb and decent, got passed by some stragglers in
the M35 group. These stragglers slowed down their pace and choked off
the winding road, so my new group had little choice but to tag along
until we passed Pescadero HS.
On second lap, I faded on rollers, recovered on 84 , and became
really fatigued two miles before feed zone. The climb back up Haskins Hill to the finish was agonizing. The best
I could do was keep the pedals turning and inch toward the finish.
This is my best effort so far and enjoyed chasing down riders and
forming up in groups to speed up progress of race. Everyone tells me
however, the best way to get though the race is to not get dropped
from the pack to begin with.
My areas to work on for the next month are hill and flat intervals to
improve race stamina, and improve `on the bike' recovery. I want to
attend more group rides (HOP/Spectrum/Sprint Training ) to force
myself to hang on with pack as long as possible.
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