Reports by:

• German
• Del
• Mike
• Landon

Category: E4
Result: 40th
Teammates: MIke,Alan, Oscar

After being tented to do the Spectrum ride on Saturday, I decided to rest instead and obviously Richard's e-mail had a great influence on my decision, which; really kept my legs fresh for next day's race. Anyway, Landon and I decided to wake up early and drive to the Panoche race and we were able to be there by 6:40 AM, we were the very first ones and the organizers were still getting ready for the race. Pulled out my trainer and got an amazing warm up of a 1 hour and 25 minutes, which is weird on me, but it was a great idea that I will try to continue in the future.

The race started on time and the field of 50 riders started at an easy pace in the rolling section, but started to increase little by little until mile 3-4, where we started to climb. At that point, I was in the middle of the pack, just at the edge of the right side of the road and two guys just went on me and hit me really hard, almost lost control of the bike and almost got me out of the road; which, could have made me roll down the hill and maybe I wouldn't been telling you my story; but I was lucky enough to keep control and kept on going, it could have been a disaster for our team because Mike and Oscar were just a couple of wheels behind me.

After that scary moment, I decided to move up to the front from mile 4 and hooked up with Alan for a while, we continue at the front at a good pace and no body wanted to help so we reduced our pace a bit and 4 riders from other teams decide to attack, but both of as (Alan and me) followed up these 4 guys, suddenly, we look back and we had a gap of about 15-20 seconds. I went up front and started to pull hard for a while and then started to take turns with Alan, we continue doing the same up to mile 12, where we were still climbing at a very good pace, but the other 4 guys in our break away were just sitting on our wheels so I slowed down because I knew the worse was still to come. The break away was not successful due to lack of cooperation from the other 4 guys. I went back to the peloton and sat in the middle, thinking that we had only a few miles left to the top, so I kept my energies instead.

By mile 14, the legs started to feel the effort and started to lose ground and hooked up with Oscar up to the remaining 6 miles of climbing. We started to work together and started to pick up death bodies left by Mike's group until we reached the summit together and then I thought to myself, finally we will get to rest in the descend, but guess what? Big surprise!!! The moment we made a U-turn at the summit, the head wind hit us with lots of hate. Started to go down very fast but there were rollers on the way back and tons of wind, making it too hard on our legs. Suddenly, I look back and my only hope was gone!! (Oscar) dam it! I then started my solo journey in to the last 20 miles of rollers and descend with quite a few potholes in the road. I started a time trial and caught more riders on my way, I felt very good pushing my big gears all the time and continue picking up riders from my category and from the 5's and masters 45+ races, but most of the time they just want to be on my wheel and not share the load, so I got upset and dropped these riders and continue my solo journey up to mile 35, where I was able to caught a cat 5 wheel that was willing to share the load with me. We worked together taking fair turns until the last kilometer and had to split to avoid disqualification, so I went ahead of him and finish on 40th position.

I guess that I could have done better if I were to save my energies in the climb. We pulled for about 8 miles in the main climb and my legs got tired. But I finally realized that even though I am not a great climber, I have improved this skill a lot, just have to be able to control my anxiety a bit more. The main thing is that I enjoyed the race and had lots of fun with my team. Thanks for reading.

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Category: 5
Result: 14 of 28
Teammates: None

As usual, I got to the line with time to spare (although apparently, Keith Kruse pulled a "Del", hehe.) Anyhow, pretty uneventful for the first 3-4 miles. I was in a breakaway with the one dude whom I was chatting it up with in the back. I come to find out later he had won Cat's Hill and Wente RR, two of the races I DNF'd at. Good for him, not for me. Three guys latched on to me and I couldn't hang on. I sat up and faded back and waited for the shame train.

The peloton came up shortly after and I drifted to the back thinking this was all too early. They had other ideas as they were chasing the breakaway intent on catching them. At that point I thought to myself "we haven't even started climbing", so I let them go but kept them within reach. Sorda.

Sure enough, the climb came about and I picked off a few of the weaker climbers but the peloton was still trudging ahead and not so much withing reach but within sight. I made friends with a dude name Gilberto who was unattached (as in no TEAM you knuckleheads) and we buddied up. I rode tandem with him on the decents and during the climbs slowed it down a bit so that he was on my wheel. I climbed much slower than I would have wanted to but he helped me out on the downhill portions so I didn't want to just leave him. It paid off and we took turns on the flatter portions, we passed this Bianchi dude and he jumped in. After some more rolling hills, Gilberto faded back behind Bianchi and I towed the two around mile 15. I was tired but neither one of them wanted to lead, fine for Gilberto who helped me, but not for Bianchi dude. Fair enough I thought, they must be spent and hell, if they don't like my "blistering" pace they could go around.

Mile 17 and I was beggining to wear, just then I turn around to see the Master's coming up on my six. Shortly after, Mike Z. goes around in second wheel with about a dozen or so in tow. They had about a +5, +8 speed differential and swept past us as I yelled "go Mike!". I was motivated and got my second wind. I picked it up and was surprised to see Bianchi boy and Gilberto in tow. I told them, "we're almost there" and that it was all downhill from here" as I lead them into the turnaround. I passed about three Master's on the inside of the turn, all apparently remnants of Mike's clinic.

As we straightened out I tried to pull off but Bianchi Bitch wanted no part of it. A few more pulls and I slowly peeled off as Gilberto took lead and I made my way behind Bianchi, finally. We passed a few more stragglers and with each one I said "hop on" and motioned for them to latch.

This is where I got smart. As each one recovered, I made my way behind them as I stacked them in front of me to shield me from the wind. It was a bit difficult, surging and some of guys getting squirrly at times either on the decents or for no apparent reason but I was getting my well deserved "rest" but it was still a lot of work. Wendy (as mentioned in German's post) latched on as well and I quickly made friends as I remember just before the turnaround, he was at the roadside fixing a flat. Next thing I knew, he's rejoining the group.

Okay, fast forward a few miles and a few new friends later and we're close to the finish. Water tanks in sight. I've got about a dozen or so guys in front of me jockying for position. So much so, that it seems they're all jamming the brakes, more on the sketchy. "Oh," I thought to myself, "they're going to sprint". At that point, I was in the back (duh) with this dude Judd and we both came to the conclusion that last place(middle of the field finish) wasn't worth sprinting and crashing over, "negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full." Bianchi dude by the way was going for it and he was the sketchiest one! So, Judd and myself rolled across the finish line, chatting away, arms linked. Okay, I made that last part up but we did finish safely as did the group despite what I thought was a sure recipe for disaster.

Looking back, I wish I had known where we stood, I had plenty left after being shielded a good portion of the way back and rightfully so. I played it smart but Bianchi dude it seems, played it smarter. I worked hard not only by myself but with my new compadré Gilberto whom by the way I wasn't able to thank at the end of the race. I think he rolled pass the line and kept on going. Bianchi finished before me and while i'm not too bitter about him beating me, I know I could have beat him in the final sprint and put my Tuesday Night sprint training to good use. Ah well, that's racing.

Now, this rumor about me cating up. Hasn't happened yet. I will however apply for an upgrade and see what happens.

I also won't be racing Memorial Day as I have to work.

It was great to see everyone not only finish(myself included), but with respectable placings. Way to redeem ourselves after Cat's Hill! Git'you sum!

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Category: E4
Result: 7th
Teammates: Keith Kruse, German, Oscar, Alan

Keith K. picked me up at about 6:15 and we headed down the road. I'm not sure when we arrived, but by the time I was ready to warm up, there was about 25 minutes to race time. Alan found me and we road highway 25 south a ways and then back and lined up about 5 minutes before the start time. I wasn't sure how my fitness would be for the race, but training had gone pretty well except for the week before Cat's Hill where everything was completely wrong with my legs.

The race started uneventfully enough, but not more than 3 miles into it, a rider a few ahead of me veered right colliding with another rider who was pushed right and into German. After a second of uncertainty, they all managed to stay upright. After that, it was a leisurely pace out to the hills while I watched the solo breakaway dangle. He went off the front at the half mile mark. I'm not sure when he got pulled in finally, but he was out there for 6 or 7 miles at least.

Finally we got to the hills. The first few were easy enough. I spoke with both Oscar and German to see how they were doing and recommended unzipping for the hot ride up the pass. After a few more uneventful hills, there was a long and moderately steep one. This started pulling things apart and so I moved about half way up (small field of only 50 riders). I saw a gap forming ahead and so I picked up the pace and sprinted a little to make sure I wasn't off the front group on the downhill. I've learned that lesson well enough before. After that, there was about 12 - 15 riders in the front group. The last few of which were gassed because they expended so much energy catching up on the slight downhill

We rode along that way with one guy in particular pushing the pace (I think he ended up 2nd). I saw another steeper section coming up and I was at the back of the bunch so I used the downhill section to launch me to the front. It was a good move because I got in as second wheel. The leader kept punching the pace to see if he could knock some people off. I think it worked because we reached the turn-around with about 10 riders in the lead group.

We turned around and immediately felt the headwind. The group rapidly formed a paceline which went along pretty smoothly all in all. At one point a cat 5 racer joined the paceline. As I passed him in the paceline I asked if he was in our race. When he said no, I said sorry, but you have to get out of the paceline. He could have DQ'd the whole bunch of us if he stayed. He politely went off the back and by the time I reached the back again, he was comfortably 50 meters back and facing the full brunt of the headwind on his own.

As my legs grew wearier for each of my pulls, the finish line got closer and I knew that I would hang on. I was looking for a sign that showed how far to go, but somehow missed the 1K sign. The eventual winner made a very good move at the 1K sign and would not be caught (huge guy from Limerick, Ireland that won last year too). I gave it as good a kick as I could at the end and apparently came in 7th. I didn't stick around for the results.

After the race, I talked to the winner and his 3 other buddies all from Limerick. They were all very nice. One of them was the solo breakaway artist. I talked to the other FFBCers in the races (Alan, German, Oscar in my race and Del from the 5s). Then, I, met Liz, Paloma, and Elia and went down to Pinnacles for a really nice hike. Oscar and Meredith were headed that way too, but we never saw them.

This is definitely a race I would like to do again next year.

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Category: E4
Result: Finished
Teammates: German,Keith,Oscar,Alan

German and I arrived to this race pretty early. And by 'pretty early' I mean 'first'. They were literally setting up tables at one end of the empty parking lot when we rolled up. Got our numbers and I hung out for a while as German warmed up. I jumped on the trainer as soon as he took off to the start, got a good solid warmup and KJ and I rolled out to the start a little ahead of schedule. It's a good thing we did, 'cause our race started about 10 minutes earlier than the website said it would. We had just barely rolled up to the line when the group started rolling.

The first few miles were pretty leisurely, lots of chatting and lots of inexplicable and sudden slowing down going on. Pretty big field, took up all the space on the road, so it was hard for either of us to see what was going on up at the front, why the pace was so inconsistent. I managed to thread the needle up the right side and get myself into the front 1/3 of the field to see what was going on just as the first of the rolling climbs came up. That's when the field started to accelerate...I managed to hang on for the first couple, but didn't have the strength to match the field's repeated accelerations and decelerations and slid off the back. I must be a stronger time trialer than road racer because I managed to keep the group in sight and leapfrog up as riders were slowly burned off the back of the field. I caught the peloton about 3mi from the turnaround by working with a couple riders, one guy in particular from the Pillar squad and I traded pulls for several miles before we managed to latch back on. Looking down I realized we were doing close to 40 in the flats, and as soon as we hit the turnaround I realized why.

The field came to nearly a dead stop at the turnaround...the pace went from 35-40 all the way down to an agonizing 13mph crawl as soon as we hit the monstrous headwind that would be my ultimate undoing. There was quite a bit of complaining about the pace but it seemed like NO ONE wanted to take a turn pulling at the front and NO ONE wanted to organize a break. A couple pairs got off the front, but in the wind it would have taken at least 3-4 guys actually working together to get away and god forbid anyone was going to work with their opponents. So the pack continued to poke along, already squirrely riders getting more and more antsy until the inevitable happened...I saw KJ bobble and unclip as a rider hit his wheel, sending him more or less safely off into the gravel without going down. I saw an opening and managed to get through the mayhem as one rider went down and another went over his bars...his bike flipped up and hit me in the leg as I snuck by in the dirt. KJ looked back as the pack splintered, I 'politely informed' him to keep his eyes forward and worry about the front half of the field that was now getting away from us. Fortunately we reattached before getting lost in the wind.

I figured we should probably make a move to the front before the long descent and get some good position in case the pace kicked up...I didn't want to be stuck in the back of a squirrely pack through any technical downhill, I wanted to be up front where the road was nice and clear. He and I made our move and held it for a while, but the last little climb up to the first turnaround was the end of me...my legs gave up, I slid off the back and I was stuck time trialing in the wind until a group of Masters caught me about 3k from the finish and I let them tow me in. I got yelled at by one of 'em, but it turned out they were going slow so I kicked it up in the final 1k or so and torched 'em across the line. Not that it did any good or won me any places, but at least I got to take a little frustration out on the rider who had accosted me. I guess those Tuesday night sprint sessions with Larry Nolan are good for something after all.

So I'll be kicking up the interval workouts and hopefully be able to hang on and finish with the pack in the next couple races. I'm hoping Hamilton shapes up a little better, I've always been a pretty strong climber at TTer and I can hold a consistent tempo, and I know I can sprint if I can just *make* it to the line, but these repeated crit-style accelerations are killing me.

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