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What Garry saw:
Category: 35/45 1/2/3/4
Result: DNF
Teammates: None
Oh, where to begin....
Well, the plan I had was to leave work early on Friday, grab the missus and head up to arrive about 6:00 PM, spend Friday night and Saturday chilling and sight seeing, then race Sunday. However, Linda started to suffer from a bad back a couple of days previous and on Friday at 11:00 AM she calls me home to drive her to the doc's, who tell us to come back at 2:00 pm, which leaves a window to visit the chiropractors, who cannot do anything due to the swelling and stiffness. Back to the docs, get painkillers, go home, Linda starts an ice pack regime and I start packing the car, thinking I may or may not be going. At 6:15 we are back at the chiropractors, who manages a small adjustment, then back home to deliver some stuff to the children, and finally at 7:00 PM we head up. Get to the hotel at 10:30 PM
Saturday. Linda can hardly move, so we drive the 1/4 mile to the town center and Linda struggles along. I scope out a small amount of the course and visit the local bike shop, which is a very cool store with lots of high end gear.
Have a nice dinner in the evening, I get some pasta down me. Feeling reasonable and confident.
Sunday, Race day.
Temperatures have dropped to the middle 80's and I finally get to do a couple of recce laps before the roads close. The climb seems doable, and I have a good vibe. I park one block off Broad street, which is the start and finish road and is the downhill portion of the course. I see Larry Nolan and get his bad news about his crash in Reno at the Tour de Nez and then I get my trainer set up and Linda situated in a chair in the shade. By the time I start my warm up, the shade I had has gone and the shoulders fry in the sun. I watch the juniors race, they put on a good show, and it ends in a field sprint, very, very unusual for this course. My race is next, a combined Masters 35 and 45+ 1/2/3/4 field.
The field is seventy five strong, 25 of which are 45+ (my group). The start and finish line is almost at the bottom of the hill and we start off on Broad Street going down towards turn one, staying neutralized behind the two pace motorbikes, Left around turn one onto Lincoln and we are doing 28 mph, still under neutral racing rules. To turn two, we go left again onto Commercial, were the course starts up hill. To T3, right turn onto Washington, then T4 at North Pine, left and still climbing. T5 is a right onto Cottage Street, then T6 is a left at Main Street and the road steepens at the apex. we are still neutral and I am following Mike Hernandez. We are all jostling for position and the speed is high enough to make me wheeze (don't forget, we have not started racing yet). Finally, as we pass under the feed zone banner the race is on and it is all guns firing. We go left onto East Broad and the climbing is still not over, there is one small bump to roll over. I get into the big ring and thump over it and then the downhill around the very gradual left curve. As we pass under the start / finish banner we are doing 40 mph. Anchors go on for the turn one and two combo, where the bales are stacked two high and the first full lap of racing is on and my god it hurts. I still follow Hernandez and its miserable. I'm sliding back and as we head up the hill again. Next time up the hill and it's a freaking nightmare and I can't hold the wheels in front. Halfway up Daryl Smith of IC3 comes by and I jump on him. We do the next lap together but he starts to pull away on the hill. I catch him on the downhill at the T1 / 2 combo (he corners like an old woman) but he just rides away again. I solo for the next lap and a group of six catches me and just has I think I have some wheels for company, we are pulled out of the race on lap 6 (of 18).
I see some friends and stop for a chat and then roll back up the hill to Linda and mope about for a good 30 minutes.
Hernandez and another Safeway rider have escaped the pack and they stay away together for the remainder, not even the combined force of 4 AMD masters riders can pull them back. Kev Metcalfe takes third and the remaining pack of about 8 have a real awesome downhill sprint to contest the minor placings.
So, I few things went wrong for me. I made a big mistake in messing around with the bike too much, giving it a big clean and breaking the chain to remove it. When I put it back together on Thursday night I did not thread it properly thru the pulley wheel cage. I discovered this 50 minutes before my race, so I was on the sidewalk with my chain in two and getting covered in "Prolink". I got it back together easily enough. but I was certainly flustered. I can point a guilty finger at the 5 week hole in my season when I had my vacation. That certainly had a negative affect. Plus all the stress of the few day's before with the missus. Maybe the biggest factor was that I was not healthy. I felt reasonable, I had some good sensations in training, but a 10 day backache was nagging at me. This may have been a symptom of what was to come the night we got back.
The drive home was really swift, 2 1/4 hours, and I unpacked and got to bed about 11:00. At 1:00 AM I awoke wanting to pee, went to the bathroom and then basically collapsed on the floor in excruciating pain. This went on for 3 hours with only one small break. I was throwing up until there was nothing left, I wanted to piss but nothing came out and the my abdomen was giving me ferocious pain. Eventually 911 was called and I was carted off to Kaiser, were I received the news that I had passed a kidney stone. May you never know how painful it is.
Finally discharged at 09:00 and went home and slept.
What a weekend.
Next year, I will finish. This is a great race, the whole town gets behind it and this is a major classic. I have to say that this is probably the hardest crit course I have ever ridden on, anywhere. The total climbing for each 1.1 mile lap is 161 feet, with 140 of that in one long climb, that stair steps its way from turn 2 to turn 7. I would say the gradient varies between 4 and 15%. I used 39x21, but did see guy's using lower. The road surface is average to good, not rough enough to slow the descent.
I will be posting some video later and photos later on the group page
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