Race Report: Early Bird Road Race: January 18, 2014

Event	Early Bird Road Race
Date	01/18/14
Group	45+ 5
Bib #	831
Result	3rd of 13
Weather	Mostly Sunny, 40°, calm

Course

Registration/Start is at the hotel east of I-5 in Patterson. We roll out, neutralized, for 1 mile, west on Sperry Ave. to the right turn onto Del Puerto Canyon Rd. and the race is on. The first 15 miles averages about 2%. At about mile 18, the road becomes a 2.9 mile 11% cllimb to a traffic cone turnaround. A fast descent back down the same canyon road, then flatter hammering until the finish on a tough little uphill. The asphalt road surface isn't particularly hideous... the usual amount of potholes and cracks that a remote canyon road suffers. I used my regular 23c rubber at 130psi.

Details of Race

Our small group of 13 stayed together as the road meandered up through beautiful, rocky, Del Puerto Canyon. The scenery reminded me of some of the desert canyon roads in southern California. One guy with bright colored socks didn't seem to mind pulling us all along at an easy 19 mph. When the climb began in earnest, we were swallowing up stragglers from the m45 cat 4 group that started ten minutes before us. Robert Easley (Pinnacle Reactor powered by JL Velo) came from behind and took off like a shot. I had just worked my way up to the front of our group and while I was climbing strongest of the other eleven, there was no catching Easley. I couldn't even remember his jersey colors to watch for his gap when he came back down as I approached the turnaround. When I made the turnaround I had a 3 bikelength gap to David Hoag (San Jose Bike Club) and a 100m gap to the next rider. There were huge gaps between our strung out cat 5 group. I descended fast. After about 1 mile, David caught me and organized our rotation. I learned immediately that David is a strong, experienced rider who is a perfect breakaway partner. We took turns on the front, around the winding canyon curves, averaging 28 mph finish. We knew one of our group had finished the climb ahead of us, but I had also seen a rider on the roadside, back at the base of the steepest part of the descent, dealing with a mechanical issue, so maybe we'd already passed him? I didn't matter, we might be chased down by others, and as it was, we both had a great shot at the podium. Twice on exposed turns, I scraped my inside pedal while cranking through the apex. I'm sure I gave David a scare. We overtook Stanley Tsang from the 45+4 group. Stanley began working with us. Then I remembered the start official mentioning that 2 riders in the c4 group were mistakenly issued numbers that were out of series, matching the series of our group, which was 800-850. Stanley's was 848. I put 2 and 2 together and told David the next time we passed side by side. We asked Stanley about this and he confirmed, realizing that he couldn't work with us. He was in a tough spot because he's strong, yet he knew it would be tough taking off alone ahead of two podium-hungry riders. So he settled in behind as we chased our dreams. As the grade flattened, we worked harder but I'd been at threshold since our chase began and my hamstrings developed cramps. I apologized to David for my shorter efforts. We also felt the power drain as our train had grown to about 10 riders and our anxiety increased about who might be in tow. Stanley agreed to pass the word through the group that we were c5 in case any of our groups got mixed up. David an I didn't like the idea of any of our group getting a free ride either, after all the hard work we'd done so far. With about 4 miles to go, Jason Campbell (Berkeley Bicycle Club) surfaced from the train. It was the guy with the socks who pulled us up the canyon! Now we had a third worker bee (I learned later that David is a bee keeper). He had earned his spot with us for chasing us down, even after pulling the whole group to the start of the climb earlier. With 1km to go the well-rested guys in the c4 train began their setup for the finish. We were going to have simultaneous c4 and c5 sprints. I told David I'd lead him out since he worked harder on the last several miles while I was fighting cramps. Neither of us wanted to give up our positions, even to sock guy. With 300m to go I was just about to get on the front to lead David out when he started his sprint. The grade kicks up pretty hard here and I could see David fizzle a bit and it was looking like Jason might take the line first. I got around David and hammered a bit to make good on my promise. He rallied with this break and shot ahead to the line. I managed to hold off Jason... or more likely he graciously backed off out of respect for our breakaway effort. Ultimately David was 2nd and I was 3rd. I feel a little bad that the m45 4 guys couldn't “have their own race” but in looking at the official results, they were competing for 16th place anyway. This being my first real road race in a long time, I didn't understand the value of waiting around for official results, so after exchanging handshakes and business cards with David back at the hotel, I loaded up and drove home, not knowing If I was 2nd or 3rd for 10 more days, until Velo Promo posted the results. This race taught me a lot of great lessons at a really good time: Pay attention to the number series of your group. Communicate with other riders during the race and be very clear. If you think you're in the top ten, stick around for results. Oh, and remember Stanley Tsang? He's amazing... he records most of his races with his GoPro camera. He caught most of this saga on video: At 6:17 on Stanley's video you see myself and David finishing the climb as he is just beginning his descent. At 6:55 myself and David overtake Stanley. The saga goes on from there, through the finish. We don't see David and I cross the line. Stanley is a great videojournalist, interviewing other riders and describing what's going on during his races. Check out his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/chidonchea

Advice from a first-timer

If you're a cat 5 master, this will be one of the few road race opportunities in the season to have a dedicated cat 5 group. We were uncommonly lucky with the weather this winter. It was dry and while it was cold, there wasn't any ice on the road. It's normal to encounter ice and/or bad weather. The climb to the turnaround will decide how the pack splits. The descent is fast but you have to work hard to maintain a gap or close one. The slog back gets harder as the grade flattens. At 200m to go you're going uphill. Don't start your sprint too early. Keep track of who's in your train. Try to make sure none of your group are hiding among other groups you may be towing. Other groups shouldn't be mixing anyway, but while that's up to a ref to enforce, it's a good idea to communicate the situation to the other riders.

Links	Results	http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2014&id=186&disc=RR&cat=05&age=45-99
	Strava	http://www.strava.com/activities/107285116