 |
| Stringing out the group on the 2nd climb (this would pay off on the next lap) photo: Alex Chiu |
Event
|
30th Annual Patterson Pass Road Race |
Date
|
08/03/14 |
Group
|
M45+4 |
Bib #
|
821 |
Result
|
3rd of 25 |
The Course:
Two
laps of a 23-mile “Loop:
Patterson Pass WEST from registration, north on Flynn, north on
Carroll (after freeway), east on Altamont Pass Road, east on Grant
Line, south on Midway back to start/finish area. A 23 mile loop with
a lot of up and downhill (mountainous) in the first half, rolling in
the second half. Two very fast descents.”
Details of the race:
The
organizers definitely go easy on us by only making us do two laps of
this tough course (the Elite 4, E3, W1/2/3 do three laps and
Men1/2/Pro do four).
 |
| The crazy looking power transmission structures near the start/finish area photo: my phone |
The
start/finish is right in front of a sizable electrical power station
on Patterson Pass Road. I'm guessing this is a transmission station
that distributes the massive amount of power generated by the
thousand of wind power generators in the area.
 |
| Wind power generators atop Patterson Pass photo: me - a frame grab from one of my stock footage shots |
From the whistle, we
climb 1800 feet in 4.8 miles. Most m45s I know, wisely ride with
compact gearing these days (50/34 up front) and can spin in the
saddle on climbs like this while they study the competition, but for
several reasons, I'm stuck with my standard gearing (53/39, 12-27).
At 8 mph I'm barely turning 64 rpm, so to avoid falling over, I hit
the final 0.8 miles of the ascent on the front of the group, even
though this bit is more challenging due of the powerful headwind
coming over the pass. Even so, the group remained intact over the
top.
The non-technical,
no-brakes, westbound descent, all the way to Flynn road is a blast!
It made me glad to have a 53-tooth chainring.
A tight right turn onto
Flynn gives the legs a chance to pump out some of the evil that
accumulated on the climb. Everyone was still there, but I sensed that
some weren't recovered, and the pace up front was too relaxed for my
taste. As charming a group as I'm sure this was, I didn't want to
have a big bunch sprint to deal with after two laps.
Flynn takes us with the wind as it climbs an easy 545 feet over 3.7
miles. No harm in getting on the front here, so I hit it harder and
stretched out the group.
 |
| photo: Alex Chiu |
I can't say I was thinking ahead here, but in retrospect I think hitting this short, second climb hard, broke some guys down quite a bit in advance of events on the second lap.
 |
| photo: Alex Chiu |
Swinging right onto
Caroll Rd. we have the wind with us again. As a full pack, we covered
these 6.8 miles at an average of 32 mph.
A tricky right turn onto
Midway Road puts us into a very tough crosswind, reducing our speed to
just under 19 mph.
At this point one more
right turn brings us to the beginning of lap two.
Even though we're
heading west, into the direction the wind comes from, we're sheltered
by the hills for the first part of the climb.
I'm assuming at this
point that we have most of the pack trailing, although I'm pretty sure many of
them are about to get dropped as we ascend these two climbs again.
The guys who climbed
well earlier were beginning to do so again. Halfway up Patterson Pass
Rd. the group thinned dramatically. Harold Reimer (LuxVue-SunPower
Racing) cruised on the front, even as we reached the tough, windy
upper section. I looked back to see that five of us had a
twenty-second gap on the strung-out field. Moments later, Harold
accelerated. Two riders couldn't match the pace, but Rob Easley (iRT-Reactor p/b JL Velo) and I stayed with
him. Rob and I were in a breakaway together recently in the Leesville Lodoga road race.
We had a solid gap by
the summit, so we introduced ourselves and got busy working together.
We built on our lead over the next ten miles. Our moto official
checked in with another by radio and told us we had a 1:30 gap back
to a lone chaser.
At this point we were
halfway through the “easy”, fast, tailwind section of the course, averaging about 37 mph for six miles. We stepped up our pace. None of us wanted to relax and risk
getting caught.
Turning onto Midway Rd.,
the cones and markers were tricky to interpret and both Rob and I
took crappy lines. In fact we almost missed the turn. Harold, who had been taking his pull on the front,
sat up and waited for us to hook on again.
Our pace for lap 1, with
the whole pack, was 19.5 mph. As a lean, mean 3-man breakaway we were
flying through the second lap at 20.5 mph. The hard work suddenly
took its toll on me and some groin cramping caused me to fall behind
Rob and Harold for the final 1.8 miles to the finish. I couldn't
close the gap alone in the crosswind, so I did the best I could, checking to
make sure no riders were coming up on me from behind. I crossed the
line third, about twenty seconds after first-place Harold and
second-place Rob.
Two minutes later, powerful Dan Wood (Cushman
& Wakefield Racing) came across the line for 4th
place after chasing solo for eighteen miles.
 |
| Clearly I forgot to put on my best "look" for the finish photo photo: Alex Chiu |
I accumulated five more
upgrade points with this race result, bringing my total to 21. A
category 4 rider with 20 points can
request to upgrade, but isn't required to do so unless they get 30
points in any twelve-month period. I think I'll wait and get a bit
more experience before moving up.
| Results |
http://www.usacycling.org/results/?year=2014&id=2508&info_id=79457
|
No comments:
Post a Comment