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"It doesn't get easier; you just get faster."

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Team Santa Cruz 2007 Race Reports

San Ardo Road Race, San Ardo, CA USA, 8/25/2007

Bryan King

I’m not that big of a fan of road races, I enjoy criteriums much more. This goes back to my days as a BMX racer when the races were short, all out efforts for about 1/4 mile. This trained me to recover well from hard short efforts, as there were 3-4 races/day. So I tend to stick to crits. In my last and only road race (Wente RR) I got dropped like a bad habit on the climb in the second lap, so when I saw the add for the San Ardo RR I figured it might be a good choice as it’s an “easier” RR. It’s rather flat as far as most of the road races go, and is on the shorter side (42 miles). El Patron was headed down to officiate the finish line, I was going to race the cat5 and Steve Rosen was racing the Masters 45 4/5 race, so we all carpooled down. Steve has also been given the name Chamois Steve as he was already dressed in his bike clothes when we met at 5:15am to start the drive. David and I figured he sleeps in his bike clothes; butt balm’d and ready to ride.

Chamois Steve had the great idea of stopping at Denny’s in King City to get some food before the rest of the drive down. Even on paper this sounds like a bad idea, in reality a swift kick to the groin would be more pleasant. The service sucked, the food tasted like rotten cardboard, and Denny’s burps are horrible in the middle of a race. Do not repeat this mistake, Denny’s is not race food, it’s not even human food.

Reading the race reports from the past, this event comes down to the last 5 minutes of the race. It goes over a narrow bridge just after “downtown” San Ardo, then turns uphill as it goes past neutral feed and under highway 101. A left turn onto a side road leads to the 150-200m finishing straight which is relatively flat. If you can be in good position going into the turn you should have a great shot at a great finish.

We previewed the first half of the course, rolling hills, some narrow roads and minor pot-holes. No sharp corners to worry about. By the time we made it to registration, the first heat was heading out. I got my number, changed and warmed up for about 10 minutes. There were about 30 people in the cat5 race, and nobody I really recognized from previous races; however I am an only child so noticing others can be hard for me. My plan was to stay in the pack, save energy and wait for the last 5 minutes. The “climb” of the race is right from the start and is only about a mile long, nothing to really worry about, and the rollers seemed all gentile. The weather was perfect, no wind and about 65 degrees warming to about 75 by the finish.

We started out at a nice 18-20mph pace, and the group seemed to flow nice for a cat5 pack. There was one guy in particular to avoid as he rode very nervously and rough, and no groups with 3+ team mates, so no real team tactics would be in play. About 6-7 miles into the race we got passed by the cat3 group, and for a couple miles we all rode together in a large group of about 100 riders, which was pretty fun to be in the middle of. Once they began to pull ahead the cat5 pack dropped back and my group was yelling into the cat3 group for the 5’s to drop back. Apparently 2 riders didn’t hear (or didn’t care) and stayed with the cat3’s. The back stretch is essentially totally flat, so we picked up to an easy 23-24mph pace. I had over hydrated at the start, and had to piss like crazy, so I dropped back. I don’t have the technique down too good with bib shorts, and it was on a flat stretch, so needless to say I got a little on myself… there’s got to be a better way to take care of business then onto your own leg… but that’s racing right? I had to work a bit to make up the 50 yards I had fallen back, and right when I caught on again there was a crash caused by two guys either bumping handlebars or rubbing wheels. They took out another guy and were laid out across the road. I had to run off the road onto the sloping gravel shoulder to avoid the crash, and nearly lost it myself. Now I had to work to get back onto the pack again, but I was glad to see the guys who crashed were ok and were able to rejoin the group. Nobody likes seeing people get hurt. Unless it’s on YouTube.

Not much happened the whole rest of the first lap, and on the second a couple small weak solo attacks on the roller sections (including a guy who thought a slight downhill was a good place for one, he made it about 25 yards until the group’s momentum picked him right back up). The back straight was a little faster, about 25 mph, but that was easy when you’re sucking wheel like mad in the back third of the pack. We had picked up some dropped Masters 45/55 riders, so the group was a little larger than we had started with.

We rolled into San Ardo, had about 1.5 miles left and I knew it was time to move up in the pack. We were going across the narrow bridge and the entire lane was jammed so I was stuck in the back all the way to the start of the climb. The pace was starting to pick up, and I knew I had to move forward or else I’d be sprinting for last. With about 200 yards to the underpass I saw a gap on the right side so I started moving up. I noticed I was moving a lot faster than I expected through the field, but I was only trying to move up a couple spots. I decided to go for a move since nobody was making a real effort considering this is the perfect spot for an attack. By the time I broke free from the field I was nearly all out, and had managed to catch them by surprise. I had a sizable lead as I went under the overpass, and continued to put everything I had into keeping the lead. As long as I could get to the turn ahead of the pack with some kind of a lead I might have a shot at a win. Going into the turn I was fading hard, but kept pushing. The road flattened out for the last 75 yards and there was no real chance of getting caught. I crossed the line in first with a 25 yard gap, I was too tired to scream “F**K YEAH” like the Cat 1/2/Pro winner did, but was pretty stoked on my first win.

After coming in, David said two other guys had crossed first, some time before, and I knew they had to have been in the cat3 group. This was confirmed when the head official Erik Peterson found them and they confessed to finishing in the other group. They got bumped to the back of the standings, and I officially had my win, a free t-shirt and diet Dr. Pepper.

This was my last race as a cat5, and a good way to know it's time to upgrade. I learned it helps to know the course, either by race reports or seeing it in person beforehand. Steve raced his first RR well from what it sounds like, and Gary did well in his race (4th). It was a lot of fun getting to know the team mates a little better, and go on a fun little trip. I’ll even try a road race again, but I swear, if Chamois Steve ever mentions Denny’s again (or gets a supersized coffee before the 2+ hour drive), I’m out! =)

Rate this race report!   Rancid 1:   2:   3:   4:   5: Awesome   

San Ardo Road Race, San Ardo, CA USA, 8/25/2007

Steve Rosen

My first road race in over 30 years - and now I remember why I enjoyed the road races so much way back in the mid-70s, when I first started racing during my college days! What a great course - just like it was described at the Velo Promo website - flat and rolling country roads - the kind of roads that first drew me into biking so many years ago - narrow roads (really narrow in some spots!), generally good condition, almost no cars, no buildings, vineyards, rolling hills all around you, almost no people (except those of us racing along the road!). Kind of like the background scenery of "Fractured Fairy Tales" on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show - most of those in my race might remember that hilarious cartoon show, as I rode with the 45+ 4/5 group in this race. I could have done the Cat 5 race with one of my teammates, Bryan King, but I decided it would be good to start racing with guys my own age - after witnessing the carnage in the Timpani crit I did a few weeks ago, I thought it would be prudent to stick to the 45+ races as much as possible - especially for crits! - the guys in those races are generally more experienced and have better bike-handling skills. I was not to be disappointed in this race, as I found the pack to be generally very well behaved - I felt quite safe and relaxed for the entire race - almost too relaxed, in fact! But more on that later...

First, you need to hear the Dennys story - I promised the guys I'd tell the story (If food stories bore you, skip to the next paragraph, please!) - since San Ardo is a couple hours away from the Santa Cruz area, those of us on the team that decided to do the race thought it might be fun to carpool together - so after a flurry of e-mails, it turned out that David Gill, Bryan King, Gary Griffin, and myself were going to head down to San Ardo. Gary was actually heading down to Los Angeles the day of the San Ardo race to help move some furniture for his daughter, so he said he was going to stop at San Ardo as a stop on the way down - a good way to stretch the legs on a long drive! I've done that drive down to LA lots of times - but never thought about doing a road race as a way to take a break! Gary was doing the 55+ race, so I told him I'd join him in his races in just 2 short years. So David, Bryan, and I agreed to carpool together - and I volunteered to be the driver. David wasn't racing - he was heading down to be one of the officials, but didn't need to be in San Ardo until 9:00 am, which was about the same time as the start for my race and Bryan's race. I thought we could head out early enough to grab breakfast in King City - I mentioned Dennys (ugh!), but was actually thinking of a really good mom-and-pop place we always stopped at in King City - Keefers! I couldn't remember the name of the place (it had been awhile since last traveling down that way), so I just said Dennys to the guys, since everyone knows Dennys. Well, we get down to King City and I told them we were really going to check out this other place just one exit past the Dennys, but when we pulled up, the name had been changed - it was no longer Keefers! It was now Margie's Diner - and they wouldn't be open until 8:00 am (it was only 6:50 am when we rolled into King City). So, we decided to go with Plan B and headed back to Dennys...big mistake! Dennys has a way of preparing food in the most tasteless manner possible - we hypothesized they must actually have special cooking classes (Dennys University?) to teach their cooks how to totally ruin the simplest of foods - eggs and hashbrowns, or oatmeal, for example. How can you mess up on breakfast? Dennys has mastered the art, for sure - and after being seated, the service was so bad, I had to get up after waiting for 10 minutes and walk over to the manager of the restaurant to find out if our waiter was ever going to come over to take our order. Then, after we (finally!) got our food and ate most of our breakfast, the waiter comes over with a bottle of ketchup and asks if any of us needs the ketchup...hmmmm...let's see - I was taking my last bite of tasteless sourdough toast, David was finishing off his tasteless pancakes, and Bryan still had a little of his tasteless oatmeal and half a glass of milk...oh, yeah - ketchup is exactly what we needed to bring some life to our food! The waiter seemed to be the perfect match for our food...Dennys...never again, we all agreed! And instead of being the 20-minute stop that I had envisioned, we were there for almost an hour!

Okay - back to the race report! After our Adventure in DennysLand, we dashed down to San Ardo, which is only 20 minutes south of King City - we were running a little late, but since we had left so early (5:30 am from Scotts Valley), we still had plenty of time - so I suggested we get off the freeway at San Lucas and preview the course by riding along the first half of the course - it basically traces these beautiful country roads that parallel Hwy 101 between San Ardo and San Lucas. Since it was now almost 8:00 am (the start time of the Pro 1/2 race), I said we'd be able to check out the Pro 1/2 peleton as we got closer to San Ardo. It was a good thing we did the preview, as we got a chance to see where the rollers were and where attacks might happen during the race. But we got all the way to San Ardo and never saw the Pro 1/2 pack - mostly because they hadn't started yet! They were running about 20 minutes behind schedule, so that meant my 9:00 am race was going to start about 9:20 am instead - they ended up canceling one of the races (one of the junior races, I believe, as there were no entrants!), so we actually got started at 9:15 am.

I didn't do any warmup for the race, and got a little concerned in the first few miles, as I knew the course was going to do the only real 'climb' of the route just after the start area - after crossing over a bridge, the road pitches up for about 1.25 miles at a fairly mild 5% or 6% grade - it's not very tough at all, but if you're moving at about 18 to 21 mph, it's harder than you'd think! Well, since we were just starting out the race, the guys at the front were being rather kind and didn't push the pace too hard - the average speed was more like 15 to 18 mph - my heartrate climbed up a bit, but nowhere near my redline area. Still, I figured that the next time up that little climb was going to be a lot faster - and I turned out to be rather prescient, which I'll describe a little later. After the "big climb" there are a series of really fun rollers for the next 8 or 9 miles, until you get to San Lucas, where the course then turns back to the south and heads to San Lucas on the other side of Hwy 101 - the rollers you hit while heading north from San Ardo to San Lucas are not only scenic, but the road really narrows for several miles, giving it a real cozy feeling - maybe a little too cozy, if a car came along - but fortunately, there was virtually no traffic on the roads - and the very few cars we did encounter were especially considerate, pulling well over to the side and either slowing way down or even stopping to let us roll on by - how nice to find such friendly locals in an area where they probably don't see too many cyclists during the year. This was something I really appreciated, as our pack was fairly large and we tended to take over the entire lane during the race - and if we were ever passed by a car or truck, they were especially generous while passing, often moving into the opposing lane of traffic. Just before we got to San Lucas, there is a very narrow bridge we had to cross - and there were race officials on either end of the bridge, to control traffic (what little there was!) while we crossed the narrow bridge - all in all, I was quite impressed with the officials at the race - everything went smoothly and the support was super. There was even a "neutral" feed zone near the start area (on the first part of that 1.25 mile climb, before it crosses under Hwy 101) where people were handing out water bottles. I didn't need the help, as I took 2 water bottles with me - and our race was only 2 hours, so I knew I'd be fine, from a hydration point of view. The pace of the pack seemed rather relaxed to me for that first 23-mile lap (Velo Promo advertised each lap as 21 miles, but several of us with cyclometers begged to differ - it was a 23-mile loop). In fact, the pack was rather chatty - you could tell that things were going to heat up for the 2nd lap - and boy, did they!

After we passed through the booming town of San Ardo (population 501 in 2000 - and they probably lost a bunch of those people during the last 7 years - I only saw about 5 locals the whole day), we crossed the bridge before the feed zone area - and as we started up the hill, you could feel the intensity rise precipitously - I realized that the strong guys at the front were going to try and whittle the group down to a more manageable size - so they really pushed a very strong pace up the hill - we hit 30 mph just before the hill, then never dropped below 20 mph while on that hill - the first time we climbed that hill, at the start of the race, it took us about 5:00 to do the 1.25 miles - this second time, we did that same 1.25 miles in just 3:30 - about 1.5 minutes faster - we were moving! In fact, we were moving so strong, the pack split in half - I was in the unfortunate position of watching all this unfold from the back, where I had purposely sat for the entire first lap - I wanted to watch everything and scope out everyone, seeing who was doing what, etc. I thought I'd move up near the front for the second lap. Well, here I was on that hill, watching the strong guys at the front of the pack creating a decisive split in the group - and I was in the caboose on that train! Uh-oh! I saw several guys in front of me that had allowed a sizable gap to grow in front of them - and I realized if I didn't do something really quick, I was going to be chasing really hard with a bunch of relatively weak riders! So I whipped around the guys in front of me that were falling off the pace, and bridged very quickly to the back of the group that was drawing away at the top of the climb - and after we surged over the crest of the hill, the pace continued to be pushed hard - my only consolation was that I knew the rest of the rollers we had on the way to San Lucas were pretty easy to negotiate - they were the kind where your momentum down one roller boosts you most of the way up the next one - and when you're sitting in the pack getting sucked along, you actually have to apply some gentle braking action to avoid plowing into the guys in front of you while catapulting up the roller. So now our group was a manageable 15 guys or so - and if we put on the pressure, we could try to stay away from the rest of our group - but just when things looked promising, a race motorcycle pulled alongside us and told us to move over, single file, and let this group pass us - it was the Pro 1/2 pack! So we slowed down and let them pass - and instead of picking up the pace again, we just continued to stroll along - almost like we did during the first lap of the race! I contemplated going to the front and forcing the pace up higher again, but then decided I was mostly interested in just finishing this first road race in 30 years - and I wanted to make sure I finished as strong as possible. In retrospect, I probably should have gone with my instincts (always a good idea!) and forced the pace back up - but you always realize things like this when you replay a race in your head - what *could* have been - or *should* have been - but wasn't to be! - oh, well...in any case, our very relaxed pace allowed the stragglers behind us to catch back on (at least, most of them) and it was now going to come down to a big field sprint, which was not too surprising - the San Ardo course is not the type that allows for easy breakaways - there is that 1.25-mile hill near the start/finish area, but that's about it. Since we were now on the return leg to San Ardo, which is virtually dead flat, it was clearly going to be a big hill sprint at the end for the finish. The actual finish for the race is not where the race starts from - you actually start a 3rd lap (remember, our race was 2 laps), and as soon as you pass under Hwy 101 (right past the feed zone area at the beginning of the 1.25-mile climb), there is a small road, Bernardo, where you turn left - and the finish is just 200 yards up the road, on a slight uphill. So the race ends up boiling down to a 0.5-mile hill sprint, after more than 46 miles of "racing". I had positioned myself quite well on the flat section leading into San Ardo from San Lucas, staying in the top 3 to 6 guys the whole time, but once again, I got absent-minded towards the end and allowed a bunch of guys to swarm in front of me as we traveled through San Lucas (Note to self - be more aggressive at the end of a race!).

As we crossed over the bridge, the pace intensified, and as we got to the base of the finishing hill, our speed hit close to 30 mph and then we attacked the hill - but I was now in the middle of the pack and saw the guys at the front really sprint hard up that hill - oh, no! I was caught behind some guys that were already starting to fade - and the sprint to the finish had barely even started! So, once again, I had to whip around a few guys and weave my way to an open area, where I could aim for the guys at the front - but they were now making that left turn onto Bernardo and only had 200 yards to go - I tried to go into a full-out sprint early, to catch as many as I could, and I did pass up about 8 or 9 guys in that last 200 yards, but it was only good enough for 16th place! Darn - if only I had kept my position near the front, I think I could have hung with those guys like I did during that surge up the hill in the middle of the race - and I know I could have had a top 10 place, for sure - and maybe even top 5...oh, well...once again - the bad news is, my racing instincts are pretty good, but my execution - especially at the end of a race - is fairly rusty. But hey! It's been a few years, right? Next time, for sure...oh, except next time is next week, when we do the Giro di San Francisco crit on Labor Day with the 45+ open animals - uh, oh - I just hope I don't get dropped in that really fast crit! We'll see...

Oh, yeah - so how did my teammates fare? Well, I heard that Gary got 4th in his 55+ race and Bryan actually won the Cat 5 race after it was determined that the first 2 guys to finish had illegally joined the Cat 3 pack as they passed the Cat 5s - congrats to both of them! And a quick note to Dennis Pedersen - how are the Mai Tais there in Hawaii? Next year, you really must do this race - you would have loved it...much easier than the Noon Goon ride we did last Friday, for sure!

Rate this race report!   Rancid 1:   2:   3:   4:   5: Awesome   

Timpani Criterium, Santa Clara, CA USA, 8/5/2007

Steve Rosen

Crash City Crit! Yeah, that'll be the *new* name for this crit, next year. I had just done my first race in about 30 years - the Watsonville crit - a couple of weeks before - and had done quite well, all things considered. I had accomplished all 3 goals: Don't crash, stay with the main pack, and finish in the top 10 (I got 8th). Since the Watsonville crit was a somewhat technical course, I was looking forward to the Timpani crit - I mean, how easy could it be? Dead flat, four 90-degree turns, good road surface in a business park area - easy, right? I guess not - it seems that every race had at least one good crash - and I counted at least 2 ambulances that showed up to carry away some of the victims - ouch!

I suspected right away there could be some problems in our Cat 5 race - when I first showed up to get registered, I saw that the Cat 4 race had just started - and I knew that Dennis Pedersen was in that race, so I planned to take my video camera and record his race (yes, Dennis - I'll get that video up on YouTube very soon!). Well, I got registered, pinned my numbers onto my jersey, and was heading over to the start/finish area up the block when I heard this big crash in Dennis' race at the first corner! Apparently, an over-zealous bush standing at that corner had managed to snag somebody and take them down - you gotta watch out for those fans - especially the non-human ones...

So it was with some trepidation that I lined up for our race - and realized there was one more problem - our pack was a lot larger than the group we had at Watsonville. Then it occurred to me that this 'easy' course would probably mean everyone stays together the whole time - not too many places to escape on a dead-flat course. But there was a bit of a headwind between turns 4 and turn 1, so maybe it would break up at some point, anyway...

I had the same basic plan as Watsonville - try to stay near the front - but it was a lot harder to do this in our race - there was a lot of surging - there would be these hard sprints out of the corners, followed by the guys at the front easing up on the straights, allowing the entire pack to regroup - and then you'd see guys flying up the inside and outside, trying to move up for the sprint out of the next corner - the pace was never fast enough to keep the pack strung out in a nice long line, like I saw at Watsonville. And you'd hear a lot of yelling all day - "Inside!" - or "Outside!". I guess I probably should have just moved to the very front and forced a higher pace - my average heartrate for the entire race was quite a bit lower than the Watsonville race - only about 145 bpm (my max is 175 bpm) until the last few laps!

But the worst part of the race was the skill level of the cyclists, or maybe I should rephrase that as the "lack-of-skill" level of the cyclists! Not all of them, mind you - just a few - but that's all it takes to make a race dangerous. And that's why I think I'll only do future crits with the Masters crowd - I know those races are harder (meaning, faster!) - but at least the "old" guys have some experience - and they know how long it takes for their older bones to heal after a crash - so they're just more careful, in general.

Back to our race - on only the second lap, we were moving through turn 3 on the backside of the course, when I saw this guy (don't remember who) out in front of me hit his brakes - in the turn! - uh, that's not exactly a good idea - it tends to make your bike act a little unpredictable - or maybe, it's quite predictable - your bike will wobble and slide - and that's exactly what happened - his rear wheel locked up and he slid into the guy next to him, taking them both down - and I got to see the whole thing, up close and personal! I have no idea how I managed to avoid hitting the one guy that caused the crash, without moving into somebody else - but I guess I got a little lucky - or my instincts from 30 years ago took over and I just somehow moved around the mess without bumping into anybody else - you always have to hold your line in a turn - always! - that's a golden rule - so when I nudged my way around the 2 guys that went down in front of me, I had visions of dominoes in my head - and I would be the next domino to go down! But like I said, I got real lucky - and somehow escaped the carnage around me. Whew!

The middle of the race saw more squirrely moves and sloppy bike-handling - I was thinking this was just one of those races you want to survive - forget about placing in the top 10 - or top 5 (my goal was to go for a top 5) - just get to the end and walk away with your body and bike intact (not necessarily in that order, of course - I mean, bodies eventually heal - bikes have to be replaced!).

So now we're down to the last couple of laps - there weren't any serious moves off the front, as I expected - and the pace finally started to get serious. As we came out of turn 4 and headed for the start/finish area, I moved up near the front, to get positioned for the final lap - and just as I heard the bell start to ring, I heard this horrible exploding sound behind me, followed by that awful sound of at least one body and bike slamming onto the ground - ugh! But I knew you don't look back (and I didn't), since that can cause you to crash, too - and I just plowed ahead, not knowing what had happened. I was a lot happier near the front at this point - it just felt a lot safer and easier for me.

So I moved myself into a really good position coming out of turn 3 on the final lap - I found taking an outside line felt a lot more comfortable for me during this race - at least you had a chance to move someplace if anything bad happened around you! Between turn 3 and turn 4, I got myself up into about 10th position or so, which is where I wanted to be - I knew there was a headwind to deal with on the finishing straight after going through turn 4, so I figured I could get some protection coming out of turn 4 and then let loose with a long sprint to the finish - and we come flying out of turn 4 and I'm starting to wind up for my sprint, when we suddenly see a bunch of officials at the start/finish area, waving their arms to slow down and stop! And then you see there is this guy on the ground, along with his scrunched-up bike - yeah, it was the guy that had crashed when they rang the bell. I heard later that he had gone over this manhole just before the finish line and his wheel got bumped hard and exploded, causing him to crash. Now, it's not clear why he decided to go over the manhole cover at that time - I mean, we had seen that one bad spot on the road at least 15 times on the previous laps - it's not too hard to just avoid it altogether! But I felt bad for the guy - he looked like he was in a lot of pain - and they had to take him away in an ambulance - I'm not sure what happened to him - probably a broken collar bone, at least...

But the officials had now neutralized the race - and they told us all to take a couple of easy laps, because they were going to re-start the race! Well, needless to say, there was a lot of grumbling and a few people probably chose to just end their race right there. But I decided to participate in the re-start - they gathered us all up at the start/finish area and told us we were going to do 2 laps to finish the race. I'm not sure why, but I didn't feel like trying to repeat all that good stuff I had done for our first race - I'm certain I would have had a top 10 position - and since I had already gained on at least 2 guys in front of me with another 100 yards to go, I was feeling good that I had a chance at a top 5 position! But for the re-start, you'd have all these guys that were now fully recovered - it really wasn't the same race anymore! During a race, you kind of get into a flow and rhythm, and now they wanted us to sprint around for 2 laps - a race that lasts just 1.9 miles! That's not a race! Oh well, I started with everyone else for the new race, but just didn't have my heart in it - and on the back side, I saw David Hopkins move to the front of the pack - not near the front - he moved to the very front, after turn 3 and before turn 4! I decided just to be a spectator at that point - given what had transpired during our first race, I was going to be content to simply finish anywhere that day! When I first saw David get to the very front before turn 4, I thought he was in the wrong place - I mean, the guys just behind him would suck his wheel, then sprint around him for 1st and 2nd place, at least! But David surprised everyone and sprinted really hard right out of the turn - he took it real wide, which is fine since he was the first one through the turn - and his strong sprint out of that final corner created a gap between himself and everyone behind him - and since there was that headwind, it became a short time trial to the finish - and David did a faster time trial than the guys behind him - and won his first race! Great job, David! I got to watch it all from the middle of the pack - I sprinted for the finish, but didn't really try too hard - I think I ended up with 21st place for our race - a big disappointment, since I thought I would have maybe top 5 for our first race, but at least I got to walk away with my body and bike intact...

More carnage followed our race - there was a spectacular crash that happened right in front of me at the start/finish area during the Women 4 race that started just after our race finished - and the one woman that went down the hardest probably broke her hip or pelvis - she was in a lot of pain and had to be taken away in an ambulance, too! Given all the carnage for the day, I'm not sure I'll put the Timpani crit on my schedule for next year...

Next up will be my first road race in 30 years - San Ardo on August 25. I wanted to do at least one road race this year - and San Ardo looked a lot more "reasonable" (i.e., less hilly!) than the University road race that is happening the same weekend - I decided to take the plunge and race with the 45+ crowd - it should be, uh, interesting...

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Watsonville Criterium, Watsonville, CA USA, 7/21/2007

Steve Rosen

I had 3 goals for this race: 1) Don't crash (always a noble goal!); 2) Stay with the main pack; and 3) If I accomplish Goal 1 and Goal 2, what the hell - go for a top 10 position. I know you're on the edge of your seat, wondering what happened, so I'll spare you the suspense - happily, I can report that I accomplished all three - 8th place! Woohoo!! But wait, there's a story in there, somewhere...

So I'm standing there in the start area of the Watsonville Criterium, half-listening to the race official go over the rules of the race and I'm thinking, "What the hell am I doing here, anyway?". It's a Cat 5 race and someone has just made some joke about being an old guy - I ask him how old he is, and he says 46 - so I ask if anyone is over 50 - no hands go up. I guess that makes me the oldest guy there, at the ripe old age of 53. So again, I wonder, "Why the hell am I doing here?". Good question. What has brought me here to the Watsonville Criterium since my last race? Yeah - my last bike race, which was about, uh, 30 years ago...

Now, 30 years is a long time between races, but as Dennis Pedersen suggested, my legs would be well-rested! No kidding - but I had also gained a lot of weight since racing back in the mid-70s with a Southern California team, the North Hollywood Wheelmen.

Just to show you how old I am, they didn't have Cat 5 back in those days - the entry level was Cat 4 and I did well enough to get into the Cat 3 group after about a year of racing. More evidence of my advancing years: I actually did a road race (I can't remember which one - another age-related thing!) where this junior kid was allowed to race with the Pro 1/2 group and won the event - yeah, it was Greg Lemond! I remember watching that race and saw him blasting his way up this hill with the pack all strung out behind him - you sorta figured he just *might* do something special one day...

After graduating college and coming up to the Bay Area, I got caught up in the excitement of Silicon Valley and, unfortunately, let my career consume me as I worked for a number of start-up companies. Bike racing (and even just regular old bike riding) got dropped out of my busy schedule - especially when I got married and had 3 boys (yeah - "My 3 Sons!"). I wish I could say one of those startups made it big-time and I was able to retire and get back to racing bikes - but there seems to be this rule that you need to work for about 10 of those companies before that happens, and I've only done my time at 9 of them. So the next one should be the one, right? Wrong! I decided about 5 years ago to get back to living a more balanced life, and my extra weight (almost 60 pounds - yikes!) suggested that I include some bike riding in my revised, healthy life style.

Of course, the weight (eventually) came off - well, most of it, anyway (why is that last 10 pounds always so hard to lose?) - and my fitness started to improve. Then, at the end of last year, I thought, "Gee - could it be possible to race again?". To find out, I decided to join in on a couple of those racing club rides - like the Saturday Valley Ride in Palo Alto - and got a quick answer, "No!" (as I got shelled out the back somewhere on Alpine Rd) - but at the start of this year, I made it a mission to get strong enough to see if I could hang in there with all those goons (Dennis kindly refers to them as 'mutants') and then consider applying for my racing license again. Well, by early May or so, I could finally hang with the goons and decided to "invest" in a new racing license - I had this odd feeling my old license was probably no longer valid (besides, I'm sure the washing machine ate it up 29 years ago!).

And that's the Reader's Digest version of what brought me to the Watsonville Criterium, about 30 years after finishing in my last sanctioned bike race.

...now back back to the race itself - I had decided to enter the Cat 5 race instead of the Masters 35+/45+ race - mostly on the advice of Dennis Pedersen - he was kind enough to point me to his reports about Watsonville from 2005 and 2006 - in fact, he had his first DNF in the 2006 Masters race (to his credit, he did place 14th in the Cat 4 race that he entered just before he also did the Masters race). He said if I finished the Cat 5 and still had energy to burn, I could enter the Masters 35+/45+ later that day, since it normally did not fill up to capacity.

I had one small advantage over some of my Cat 5 competition - namely, I actually had about 2 years of road racing experience behind me - WAY behind me, of course - but I had done a lot of crits back in the mid-70s, as well as a number of road races - and I knew from that vast (but ancient) experience that the place to be during the race is somewhere in that first 5 to 10 guys - for lots of reasons. First, they tend to be the better bike handlers, which is why they can scream through the turns faster - and more importantly, keep their lines! Second, it's easier to watch for things like breakaways - and react more quickly to save your energy. Third, and most importantly, you avoid the "yo-yo syndrome" - we all know this one pretty well - the ones in the middle and the back of the pack get hammered over and over, as they have to close down gaps that form because of the less experienced cyclists that can't go through the turns as quickly, or can't stay with the pace of the faster guys up front. And since Watsonville had 5 turns (including a nasty 120-degree left turn with a drainage ditch running across it!), anyone caught towards the back of the bunch would be doing a lot of hard intervals as they got "yo-yo"ed around the course - the front is the place to do fewer intervals - or, at least, the intervals you have to do are a hell of lot shorter in duration!

So my game plan was simple - stay near the front, at all costs! Less crashes, less yo-yo-ing, better chance to actually place at the end - assuming I was still around at the end! I got an excellent warmup for the race, as a number of us met at Mike Evans' house at 10 am to ride to Watsonville (our race was scheduled for 12 noon) - I got a chance to meet some of my new teammates and we chit-chatted our way over to the race - I decided to pull at the front towards the end of the warmup ride, just to make sure my old muscles were ready for the 30 minutes of pain during our Cat 5 race.

Fortunately, our group was not as large as I thought it might be - there were maybe 25 in our race - but I surveyed the competition and quickly thought we weren't going to end up with 25 at the end - Watsonville is a somewhat technical course - with a small hill (the finish is at the top of that hill) - and with those somewhat tricky corners, I was totally convinced there were going to be multiple crashes - especially in the early part of the race. However, it turns out I was dead wrong (thankfully!) - there wasn't a single crash in our race! In fact, I don't believe there were any crashes in any of the races that day - amazing! Not only did we have the tricky lefty turn, but the 2nd to last turn of the course had this little pothole right near the apex of the turn! If you sliced it right, you could whip through that corner between the little pothole and the curb - but there wasn't much wiggle room if you made a mistake! And that lefty turn with the drainage ditch running across it just didn't have any nice paths to take through the turn - at least, none that I could find - and I tried a few different places - but none of them were easy! Basically, you just bounced your way through the turn - ugh!

So the race starts and everyone sprints up the little hill, mostly to get a decent position on the first turn after a small downill section - I always hate starting out a ride going up a hill, but my lengthy warmup from Santa Cruz to Watsonville helped to soften the pain a bit. I quickly got myself up into the top 10 positions or so and did a good job of staying there! As expected, the race was pretty hard - but a lot of fun - I had forgotten just how fun bike racing can be! Now, all I had to do was not crash, stay near the front, and suffer for 30 minutes - I knew the suffering part would be tolerable - it would be no worse than a time trial - and I had actually participated in a non-sanctioned time trial on Canada Road (the Beat-the-Clock series) at the end of last May - and did pretty good, too - 23 mph for 10 miles on a rolling road (26 long minutes!) - so I knew I had the conditioning to hang in for this race - assuming I did some energy conservation during the race, I thought I'd have a remote chance at finishing the race - and maybe even place in the top 10! I think the reason why there weren't any crashes was pretty simple - the pace was high enough that the pack got spread out pretty well - it did bunch up on the back side of the course, before the final turn to go up the hill, but if you lost any position, it was easy to get it back on the uphill towards the finish area.

About halfway through the race, the pace picked up a little more for a couple of laps and as we crested the top of the hill, it sounded eerily quiet behind me - I glanced behind and saw the reason why - there was nobody behind me! The closest guy was about half way down the hill - so I was now in a group of 8 that had managed to break off the front - and our group included one of my teammates, David Hopkins. Everyone realized we had broken away and the pace really picked up for a couple of laps, as a sizable gap was created. Then the pace slowed down for a few laps - there were a few small attempts for a breakaway, but nothing significant materialized. There was this one guy that David had mentioned to me - Nick (who won the race) - he was clearly a very strong rider and is probably due to move up to Cat 4 now - at one point, he broke off the front and was waiting for someone to join him - I was tempted to go for it, but decided that since this was my first race in such a long time, I wanted to play it conservative...

So all the sudden, it's the bell lap and, of course, the pace had already picked up in anticipation of our last lap - so now it would all come down to a bunch sprint - I was delighted, since I knew I'd get top 10 for sure - all I had to do was finish with the group and I'd get at least 8th place - woohoo! I knew David Hopkins was a strong sprinter - and I had told him I'd be more than happy to lead him out for the sprint at the end. But even though I had lots of experience from crits I did eons ago, I was obviously just a tad rusty and fell asleep at the wheel! I had been thinking that Nick was going to take a flyer on that back stretch, to get through the final turn first and then sprint up the hill - which is exactly what happened - but I thought that due to the headwind on that back stretch, he'd wait until we were half-way down the street before making his move. And this is where I fell asleep - just as we blasted through the second to last corner and entered that windy back stretch, I didn't see that Nick had sprinted out of that corner and was making his move right out of the corner! I was in what I thought was a good position (like 4th or 5th), ready to lead David up the hill after the final turn - but suddenly, all these guys sprinted past me, chasing after Nick! It was panic city - and I was the last one in line at the bus stop! Oh, no! Instead of leading out David, I was chasing after a wheel, any wheel! But, alas - the bus pulled away and I had to settle for last in our group sprint - but still good enough for 8th place overall! And David gained on Nick and the guys just behind Nick as he sprinted up the hill, but ended up settling for 4th - still an excellent showing!

Playing it again in my head after the race, I realized that I had made a classic mistake by not paying attention - I just *knew* who to watch - but dummy me - I took my eyes off of him for just a few moments - and that's all it takes when you get down to the wire - especially in a bunch sprint at the end of a crit! I think I lost focus because I was dreaming about the fact that I was about to finish my first race in 30 years and get a top 10, to boot! You really shouldn't be dreaming about anything when you get to that last few hundred yards in a race - except maybe winning the darn thing!

But I felt good that I had accomplished all 3 of my goals for the day. And more importantly, I had re-discovered that bike racing can be totally fun - and I was glad I had made the decision to just "go for it!", rather than wonder what it would be like to try to race again! I also had a moment's reflection when I wondered where I'd be if I had never gotten away from bike racing in the first place - I'd like to think I'd be tearing the legs off some of those Masters 45+ guys, - oops! - looks like I'm starting to dream again... At least in just 2 short years, I can compete against the 55+ crowd - and I'll actually have 2 *recent* years of experience at that time... :)

After the race, we all hung out under the awning that had been setup for the team near the finish area at the top of the hill and had a good time exchanging war stories about the race. Then we got to watch Dennis' race and saw him place 2nd in the Cat 4 race - all in all, a good day for our team!

Let's see, if I wait 30 more years for my next race, I'll be only be 83... :)

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Dennis PedersenTimpani Criterium, Santa Clara, CA USA, 8/5/2007

Dennis Pedersen

Sirens are not what you want to hear when you're racing bikes, but we got an earful at this year's Timpani Criterium... and an earful of doomsday drumming to go with them, courtesy of the Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club's president who pounded on a set of huge kettle drums to add an appropriately dramatic atmosphere. Perhaps everybody is chasing points as the road racing season winds down, as I am, and they were taking more chances as a result. Ask not for whom the drums beat...

My goal for this race, besides having fun, was to get 5th place or higher so I would qualify for upgrading from Category 4 to Category 3. To help achieve that goal I had stretched a planned fitness peak away from the Masters Criterium Championships held the previous weekend in Minden, Nevada, onto this race instead, so I'd be as near to 100% as possible. In the days before the race I really doubted it would work as I felt very sluggish. But, right on schedule, my legs snapped to attention on race day and I felt great. It's awesome being able to rely on a training program that banishes the doubts I used to have with my casual training. But having such a specific goal also put me under mental pressure I'm not fond of, and this is supposed to be fun!

Going to races with team-mates is a blast, but it's rare I get to do that as I'm one of the few regular road racers in Team Santa Cruz. We had a great turnout at the Watsonville Criterium, and I was happy to see that most of the same guys signed up for the Timpani Criterium too. As before we'd carry our gear in Mike Evans's Vanagon. But then Mike decided to till the landscaping on the San Lorenzo River's levee with his jaw, a scene Margaret witnessed while driving peacefully home from work, and we ended up scattered to the winds. As consolation, my parents and brother decided to come out and watch me race, which is pretty unusual for an old Master racer like me.

When I got to the race venue, in a business park in Santa Clara near Great America, the overcast sky was beginning to clear a bit and a slight wind blew from the south, so the weather would be nice for racing. I had my friend Chris Tanner of LGBRC sign me in for the Elite 4 race at 9:15am as he was working registration. I put on my long-sleeved skinsuit because it was still a bit chilly, and mounted my race wheels with the new low-drag tires I bought the day before. While they might only save me a few seconds in a race, you only have to win by a tiny fraction of a second.

Dave Hopkins, King and Steve Rosen showed up for the Elite 5 race at 10:10am. Dave's girlfriend Sara even rode her bike from Santa Cruz to watch him. I saw George Fuentes, of LGBRC, getting ready for his first race since his Cat's Hill debacle, and we joined Erik Ostly to warm up.

As we gathered for the start I was greeted by a full field of 100 racers!!! This makes moving around in the peloton difficult, and staying at the front important but challenging. I had some uncharacteristic butterflies in my stomach. They announced there'd be a couple of primes, but I didn't plan on contesting them as I already had enough to worry about. The course is wide and as flat as, well, you know what, with four corners and a slight bend on the back straight, quite a few Botts Dots, and a notorious bush hanging over the curb in Turn 1 that I remembered from previous races there. The finish line was into a headwind slightly from the left, and each lap was about 9/10ths of a mile.

After the start whistle, and drums, sounded we set off at a fast but not exhausting pace, so I was able to maintain my place and my energy reserves. The two double rows of Botts Dots were annoying but that bush in Turn 1 was a different matter. About halfway through the race some guy about 20 feet ahead of me snagged his bars on the bush and went down with a couple of others joining him. I was able to stop and walk around them as one guy asked the instigator "Why would you do that?" Good question. This was the scariest race I'd been in all year, and it required 100% of our focus.

The turns weren't that tight, but since most guys didn't race an ideal line we still ended up with some yo-yo effect towards the rear, and every time I noticed it I worked hard to get back to the front. Sitting in the group was very comfortable when I could do it though, as we created a huge suction effect that pulled us along, and we averaged 26.4 MPH for the race which may be a record for me.

During the first prime sprint lap I was in about fifth place into the last turn. But because I was slightly boxed in, and not willing to "burn matches" at this point, I held back and used this as a test run so I could get a feel for how I should set myself up for the final sprint. The final straight was about 300 meters so I figured that the bigger sprinters would have an advantage and that I would absolutely need to draft somebody until I got closer to the finish line before going all-out. Reconnaisance mission accomplished, I let myself relax a little in the peloton's draft and ignored the second prime.

At 7 laps to go I started to work harder to stay in a good position. But everybody else was doing the same and since the field was so big most of us could only move forward by going around the pack. This caused a sort of double paceline with riders in the center moving back, and others moving forward on either side before they in turn were pushed back down the center. Timing my efforts in this shifting tide was difficult, but somehow I managed to get it almost right because on the last lap I was near the outside and fairly close to the front on the back straight.

But two positions ahead of me was a rider in Family Cycling Center kit who chose this critical moment to pop out of his pedal while riding on the Botts Dots, which caused him, and the rider behind him, to bounce all over the place. I was looking for an opening anyway, and shot forward right next to them in the space others had wisely vacated, thus turning this near-disaster into a golden opportunity. But Erik, who had apparently marked me (I'm flattered!), lost my wheel there and got boxed in. This move brought me into about 10th place just before the last turn.

Ah yes, Turn 4 on the last lap, where all of our plans clash at one moment. I moved into about fifth place in the turn, swinging wide on the outside where I could maintain my speed. This may not be the ideal move, in theory, because the inside line is a shorter line with a wider radius, and the headwind was slightly from the left so staying near the right gutter would prevent people from drafting as much. But the outside line had worked for me up until then and I decided to take it. This worked out really well because I passed tons of guys stuck in the pack and was able to grab the wheel of a rider who shifted out of the pack on my right to swing outside like I was planning to do. But here's the impressive thing: he had two team-mates with him, and upon exiting the turn they were able to provide him with a two-man lead out! Wow! That's difficult to do in such a huge field and almost unprecedented in Cat. 4 races!

The first lead-out guy faded pretty quickly and pulled off to the left, while the second lead-out managed a hard effort before pulling off to the right, which is usually a mistake as he couldn't shelter his sprinter from the wind at our left front, but it may have contributed to our success by blocking the charging center of the peloton. I was right on their sprinter's wheel as he took the lead, but he instantly jumped super hard, which I thought was stupid because we still had almost 300 meters to go and he'd slow down well before the line. But this allowed him to gap me and I tried to smoothly close it while saving a little for the finish line, but he was still going so fast that I had to work all-out to come even with his rear wheel, and by that time the finish line was approaching us faster than I was gaining on him. He screamed gutturally as he held on for his well-earned victory, with me gasping into second place! What an exciting finish!

Hey, they earned that victory through their awesome team work, and I was really glad to have fought as well as I did. In retrospect I should have gone all-out to hold his wheel, but hindsight is always 20-20. I cooled down and called out to friends watching, then joined my family and team-mates to share war stories. Steve told me he even got my finish on video!

We stayed and watched the Elite 5 race so we could cheer my team-mates on. It was a much smaller field, but even so they had a crash right in front of us on the last lap in which one rider broke his collarbone and had to be removed in an ambulance. I was just really happy it wasn't one of my friends, and my shocked mom was really happy it wasn't her little boy. This forced a restart with two laps given. As I watched the last turn I saw Dave, swinging wide as I'd done, sprinting super hard for an awesome victory! Woo-hoo! My friends from LGBRC had a good day too, with Chris leading Rob out for a strong 5th place finish in the Elite 3 race. What a great day for all of my friends!

But not for everybody. The Elite 3 race had a crash too. But even worse, in the Women's race some poor girl continued the carnage by breaking her hip. Another ambulance and two fire trucks added to the gloom.

But my day just kept getting better because my dear old mom had prepared a traditional Danish "smørrebrød" lunch for us, with pumpernickel, coldcuts, herring, cheese, eggs, shots of akvavit and beer joining in a heavenly choir of culinary delight! We sat in their backyard and enjoyed the perfect weather while we each described the race as we'd seen it, and reminisced about the good old days. Oh, I almost forgot: Yes, I earned enough points to upgrade to Cat. 3!

What a complete turnaround from the disappointment of my mediocre results in 2006. The 2007 season has left me dumbfounded by the adaptability of the human mind and body. My motivation and excitement have returned in full measure, and I look forward to the 2008 season!

Photos:

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Big Foot Classic, Humboldt, CA USA, 7/7/2007

rita leon

Departure Monterey Peninsula Friday July 6, 2007 8:45am – Arrival Humboldt Bay, Arcata just after 5pm. There was a caravan of 3 cars with 6 riders, (Shelly Monroe and I of Team Santa Cruz shared the entire experience!)

Our whole group did a spinning ride that evening in the Arcata Community forest for about and hour and ate Mexican food for dinner. No kidding one of our guys (also an ex Navy Seal) ate THREE super chicken burritos!

Woke up at 6am, shower, eat oatmeal, get dressed, and off we go East on 299 for about 20 miles. At an undisclosed dirt road a big wooden Big Foot pointed us in the direction of the race. Winding back another 4 miles we made it to the race course. It was a damp morning, standing in line for registration, we get the pre-race spiel from the Master of Team Big Foot about the course, fast switch backs trough trees, using parts of the Super D the day before, and be forewarned that there was come clear cutting going on a few days ago that went right through the course. Obviously a sign that the race is no longer wanted in this private area and will actually be the last of its kind in this spot.

There were a total of 5 woman that showed up(about 60 racers in all). The women were all in different age groups and categories, 1 expert, 3 sport, 1 beginner, that would be 2 laps (28miles), 1 ½ laps (21miles) and 1 lap. The Lemans start was on the uphill of a fire road Expert, Sport, Beginner. It lead you right into the trees, a nice meandering wide single track with a soft pine needle ground that dumped you right out to a left hand turn and a 1 mile grassy uphill fire road. At the top of the hill all you could see were trees and more trees, quick right and super D hill away, rocky soft soil sharp hairpin turns into more trees and the up again on rocky soft soil. Mind you that this trail is cut for this race only and no other riding is done on it afterwards because its private land.

More up and down through trees and whoosh plunk right into the clear cut, a psychosomatic experience you couldn’t help but slow down and look! Back onto the fire road for another mile and when you reach the feed zone your directed left onto the orange dot trails again whipping through pines. It was mentally draining while trying to follow the twists and turns of the trail, past a lake and into the 2nd half of the orange dot…. You had to keep you hands on the shifters, constantly adjusting to the uneven terrain, mud, mushy ground, roots, rocks, inclines….. Shelly and I traded lead through out the whole first lap, no real injuries or problems. Just team mates pulling each other along.

The final part of the lap was again the fire road where we started. That was the longest 14 miles I ever road! The last climb up and onto the 2nd lap Shelly stepped on the gas which I could not keep up with. It was that grassy climb that got me and realizing on the first (second time around) super Downhill I was tired and should just take my time until the fire road climb out. As for the women, #1 was 2:36min (40+), #2 Shelly 2:40(29) #3 Me 2:46 (35). We all got 1st place medals a Big brass foot!

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National Championship Mountain Bike Race, Mt. Snow, VT USA, 7/21/2007

Ron Riley

The National Mountain Bike Championships Mt. Snow, Vermont Saturday, July 21, 2007 By Ron Riley

Since this is a race report, I’ll spare you “the rest of the story” about canceled flights, middle of the night driving in the rainy Vermont Mountains, and arrival at the B & B at 4:30AM.

As I pre-rode the XC course Friday, I decided that if I wanted to finish my race the next day over this technical, muddy mother of a course, I’d have to follow a very conservative strategy.

Saturday dawned clear and mild and after a warm-up, Harriet and I made our way to the starting line for my 8:20AM start. Before the start, I was called up and Team Santa Cruz got a moment in the national spotlight.

Off the line, the course went uphill and the big guns of my 65+ Expert class were already opening up gaps. Soon the course turned into the woods and downhill on a single track of mud, rocks, and roots. I employed my conservative strategy (another way of saying I suck at technical downhill) and dismounted. I ran the bike around and over the rocks and roots and remounted when the trail became less intimidating. I wasn’t alone in using this strategy. I soon learned, though, that I needed to carry not push the bike to avoid packing up with black Vermont mud. Half way through the first five mile lap and at the top of a very tough granny gear climb, there was a trio of drummers beating out tempo for us – cool! At the “three arrow down” danger spots, course marshals would blow a whistle to warn riders below that a rider was coming down….scary!

At the end of the first of our two laps, Harriet handed up a fresh bottle of liquid to me in the feed zone. I thought I might be in fifth or sixth place among the nine entrants in my class. The second lap went about like the first except now I was being lapped by those experts doing three laps. Finally, I came out of the woods and down the short “open” section to the finish.

At the awards presentations, Charles Berinstain (70) of Connecticut won the class with a time of 2:03:20. The fifth and final podium spot was in at 2:48:48 and I was 6th at 2:49:58. Later that day, Adam Craig won the Pro National Championship race doing 4 laps in 2:16!!

I had time to wash the bike, change clothes and grab something to eat before the awards ceremony. I congratulated all my competitors and Harriet took pictures. We enjoyed a few extra days in Boston before heading home on Tuesday.

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Dennis PedersenWatsonville Criterium, Watsonville, CA USA, 7/21/2007

Dennis Pedersen

I targeted this race as a priority last fall when I set up my structured training program because I love the fun course. I've subsequently decided it may also suit my strengths. But in the week leading up to the race I put in extra miles in part because I adjusted my peak to favor some races in early August. Even so, I was pretty near my top shape for this race and it promised to be exciting!

The whole Team Santa Cruz gang enjoying the team's awning!
The whole Team Santa Cruz gang enjoying the team's awning!

As a bonus, Mike Evans decided to race too, along with Erik Thunstrom, Dave Hopkins, Nick Purtscher and new guy Steve Rosen! They decided to warm up by riding their bikes to Watsonville from Mike's house in Santa Cruz while I would drive his van down with all of our gear. Since they were all racing the "Elite 5" race at 12:00pm and I was racing the "Elite 4" race at 12:45pm, I would be better off warming up after I got there. I only need short warmups anyway.

On race day I had a nice chicken and vegetables sauté while Margaret and I watched Alexandre Vinokourov on TV racing his too-good-to-be-true time trial at the Tour de France. Then I rode with all of my gear to Mike's house. It was a beautiful summer day, and I knew it would be hot later. Mike was already loading up the van and I got to meet Steve who was racing for the first time in 30 years. Holy smoke! Ken Sato and Chris Pearson wanted to ride along for fun and to watch the race. This was really cool!

I coaxed the ol' Vanagon down to Watsonville and parked in the perfect spot that David Gill had mapped out for us, right after the finish line on the hilltop. Mike had loaded up the team's awning and several chairs, and I started setting that up immediately. Soon my team-mates arrived on their bikes and everybody got busy signing up and finishing the setup. I was the official number pinner, and didn't even draw anybody's blood. After they were all set and rode off I signed in and got ready too. Robbie Abundis was racing in my group and warmed up on his trainer near the start line. Team Santa Cruz did very well in the Elite 5 race with Nick 1st (albeit in Rock Lobster kit), Dave in 4th, with Steve and Mike close behind. Pretty cool!

Dennis at Watsonville Criterium.
Dennis at Watsonville Criterium.

I warmed up for 12 minutes including two practice laps on course before I had to line up below the hill. This course is only 3/4 of a mile per lap with seven or so turns, two of them very sharp, plus a hill, and some drainage gutters, so the pack tends to split up a lot which forces us to almost sprint out of every turn to regain the draft of the riders in front of us. The guys at the front of the pack, in contrast, maintain a more consistent speed. This is what we call the "yo-yo effect." I'd guess we had about 50 guys in my race, and I skootched over to the right gutter to get a clean shot at the front of the field... after suffering from this "yo-yo" effect the last two years I was determined to stay near the front of the pack at all times.

The whistle blew and we shot up the hill for the first of our scheduled 24 laps. The pace was pretty fast at first, like usual for this short course, but I stayed in my zone by riding near the front of the long thin line of riders snaking through the many turns. The pace slowed a little after about two laps and I tried to save energy. There were two cars parked on course, like last year, but this year I didn't see any crashes, thankfully, so it was a fairly clean race.

The starter had told us he didn't think we'd have any prime sprints. Bummer; I had wanted to practice pack sprints some more. But it turned out we did have two primes for strawberries from sponsor California Giant Berry Farms. But the pace was too fast, and the laps too short, so I knew I wouldn't be able to recover from these sprints in time to contest the race finish. I wisely skipped them! Instead I worked a little, within my limits, to close gaps and even chase efforts at breakaways. These efforts I could manage better, though I did get winded. I think breakaways have a fairly high chance of success on this challenging course so it was worth the risk to me.

When the lap cards read "2" I was already near the front, but slowly moved even further up, and also worked so as not to get swarmed by guys from behind me trying to do likewise. It gets busy with all of this "argey-bargey," and I've learned not to try to stay too fresh at this point in a race. It's better to be at 95% effort and well-positioned than at 75% but boxed in by the pack ahead of you; an important lesson I've had to learn.

With two turns remaining I shot ahead on the outside and into the headwind. Everybody was looking for a wheel to follow, and I was well-placed when a Stanford racer started moving up on the outside left, right in front of me. Perfect! I jumped up to him, he jumped, and we flew into that last right-hand turn on the outside and onto the wide street. Wheee!

Dennis gets pipped at the finish of the Watsonville Criterium.
Dennis gets pipped at the finish!

This guy was strong, but I was easily able to stay with him as we hit the hill, passing all the guys who took the slower inside line of the turn. And when he started to fade I saw that I was in a great position to win... woo-hoo! I jumped around him with just 50 or so meters remaining and flew up the hill in the lead, toward that promised land of the finish line! But just then I heard, then saw, his team-mate jump past me on my left and proceed to cross the line a bike length ahead of me. Dang! My error: While I had stolen his lead-out man I had merely provided him with a two-man lead-out instead of the one-man lead-out they'd been attempting! But it's all good: we shook hands and I congratulated him on his perfect timing (and couldn't resist mentioning to this young guy that I was going to skip my old-man's 45+ race!).

Mike fined me an imaginary 1000 Swiss Francs for getting pipped at the line... yeah, try and collect it Mike! But, you know, I sure didn't feel like the "first loser." I got pipped, but it was pretty exciting nonetheless and way better than my 14th place last year. I now have 18 of the 20 points that will upgrade me to Category 3. I'd done most things right, and only made that one mistake that kept me from winning. Not too bad! What a difference a year makes!

I cooled down with a beer, courtesy of Erik, while we watched the open Masters race; I recognized lots of super-strong riders, some of whom got dropped like I did last year... made me happy I didn't attempt it! Ken and I drove to my home, while the others rode back, and dropped off my stuff while he continued on to Mike's harbor-side cottage. Ken carefully locked the van and hid the keys in Mike's mailbox. Mike's getting old though, like me, and didn't see the keys in there at first and promptly fined me another 1000 Swiss Francs! Seriously, many thanks to Mike and the others for making this race such a blast!

Photos:

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Dennis PedersenCoyote Creek Circuit Race, San Jose, CA USA, 7/7/2007

Dennis Pedersen

I'm starting to wonder if I'll be upgrading to Category 3 after all. That's not really my goal, as it would complicate my efforts to race with team-mates, most of whom are Cat. 4, but it could happen.

I entered this race last year, and in spite of not contesting the finish (!) did surprisingly well. My theory is that we all have specific types of courses that suit our unique physiology, and slightly hilly courses under one hour ending in a sprint may be my forte. Coyote Creek fits that profile very well, so I was definitely planning to race it. I was still in a "Build 2" period and didn't "Peak" for this race, though I did have a scheduled "Recovery" week leading up to it so I was fairly rested.

I knew Eddy "the Snake" Price, of Bicycle Trip, would be there, and Robbie Abundis, of Family Cycling Center, showed up too, but in spite of some nibbles I was the sole Team Santa Cruz racer. So I had a wild boar and vegetables breakfast while watching the Tour de France prologue with Margaret, loaded up my car and drove over the hill. The race is held just across Freeway 101 from Hellyer Park in a semi-rural business area, with a horse school and old farm houses rubbing shoulders with modern office spaces.

I ate a banana and a complementary cookie and filled my water bottle with enegy drink. I warmed up for about 15 minutes before getting a practice lap on the course. It's very smooth, about 1.8 miles per lap and has a fairly long, but gentle, climb. The hill is about 100 feet up in roughly 600m, and this year a fairly strong headwind from the south promised to tame any breakaway attempts. It's not very inviting to spectators though, but temperatures were in the 70s to about 80 at my 1:25pm start, which was nice. Turnout seemed low too, perhaps because Cougar Mountain and Carrera de San Rafael were raced on the same day.

As I lined up at the start line at the base of the climb I scanned the pack of 50 riders; San Jose Bike Club jerseys were everywhere! But I've learned the hard way that team jerseys don't make a team, especially in these 35+ 4/5 races, so I was not intimidated.

The pace was lazy for the first few of our 10 or so total laps, and I moved forward easily. But it picked up for the first of our three prime sprints. I was considering contesting these races-within-a-race as I still need practice, but missed this one because I didn't know their clanging fire-alarm bell was the signal. When I saw two guys charge up the hill toward the finish line near the top I figured it out. Duh. A small Peninsula Velo racer took it.

Leading up to the second prime I got boxed in by the windaphobic pack, but I carefully watched what happened: a Z Team rider just launched himself all-out early in the climb... and nobody followed. Wow. What a mellow pack!

The very next lap, with five laps to go, was also a prime lap. I was ready for it and managed to position myself well. As we chugged up the hill I made a short jump and looked back; nobody followed me either! Winning this, my first, prime was like stealing candy from a baby!

This race had the usual Cat. 5 squirreliness and people yelling at each other, but no crashes. I did see some poor riding though, and in turn 2 a SJBC rider almost took me out, forcing me to hit my brakes, skidding sideways but holding on. This didn't distract me though, and with two laps remaining it started to feel like a real race!

Sure, our pace picked up, but I was easily able to move up on the last lap, thanks to the wide course and drafting riders who left the sides open. But this peloton was full of guys who needed a lead-out up the windy climb, so we all jammed up at 200m to go, watching each other to see who would be the fool to make the first move. I squeezed by next to the curb, moved up near the front and carefully looked around. I was now third wheel in a single-file row off the front. That meant that anybody from the main pack would have to ride several bike lengths in that dreaded wind just to get even with me. And then they'd have to attack past me at the risk of leading me out. Sweet! (See Chris; I really do listen to you!)

I knew the risk, but it was time for me to act. I launched my attack at about 200m, going around the left of the two guys ahead of me because they blocked the headwind that was slightly from the right a bit more, and just kept going. I gambled that everybody would think my early jump up the hill into the wind was suicidal and give me a big head start like in the primes. If they followed I'd have to consider backing off and waiting. With about 100m to go I peeked behind me... only then did anybody start to follow, but my lead was at least 20m. Excellent! I kept my head down and pretended I was doing those painful hill repeats with Mark Edwards. I was dying, and I saw they were gaining on me, but not by enough. Even though my legs almost collapsed under me when I stood up to sprint for the last 10m, the cheering spectators told me I had won! Yee-haw!

Interestingly, SJBC didn't have anything to show for their huge turnout. A guy named Maurice Klein (AKA "Jay"), and Dan Palmer, of The Spokesman, took the other two podium spots and congratulated me; Eddy and Robbie too. Eddy is just back from time off so he wasn't in top form yet. Robbie got stuck behind the jam. My big problem was collecting my loot and posing for the podium shot. This is still so new to me that it makes me feel like a star. Never mind that the spectators were only the families of Dan and Jay! Back home Margaret had prepared a dinner party for friends while I played; I'm so lucky, and what a great way to cap off the day.

I feel that I really read my competitors well this time, and saw the doors they left open for me. But without my training I couldn't have pulled it off. I'm not a natural; if I can do it so can you.

Photographs:

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Dennis PedersenCCCX Cross-Country #9, Expert 45-54, Fort Ord, CA USA, 6/30/2007

Dennis Pedersen

Man, these mountain-bike races sure make me feel my 46 years, especially since I moved from "Sport" up to "Expert" level. In road racing the higher categories usually race the same length as the lower categories, so upgrading simply means racing against faster guys. But in mountain-bike racing you race against faster guys and you race further.

At the fun club meeting/party at Norman Field and Karen Kefauver's place on Thursday I not only carbo-loaded on Norman's "Laid-Off" chocolate cake, but also learned of other racer's plans. Like how David Gill's back and neck are pretty much back to normal and he was planning on racing as well, for the first time in a long time. This would actually be the first time he and I would ever race together. That was awesome news! And David managed to convince Mike Evans to join us. Woo-hoo! I e-mailed him the next day to verify, managed to finagle a carpool with them, and was looking forward to race day.

This race came near the end of a tough "Build 2" period for me, so I wouldn't be fresh. And the race would put me over my prescribed miles for the week, but it would be followed by a "Rest" week that would let me "Peak" for other upcoming races. Heck, I even tried to lose some stubborn belly fat.

On race day Margaret and I had breakfast at Café El Palomar (Corralitos Ostrich Sausage Scramble for me, with egg-whites, corn tortillas and fruit; yum!). Then she dropped me off at Mike's bungalow on 5th Avenue where David met us and we loaded up our piles of gear into Mike's Vanagon. Typically, I wanted to discuss team tactics; Mike suggested I go out 100% from the start and then they'd attack later! Hmmm... I'd think that one over. In the Sport races I always faded somewhat in the last lap or two, but the extra length I now race has forced me to pace myself better. At least this race was at Fort Ord; its short climbs hurt sprinters like me less than Toro Park's long climbs.

Mike and David decided to get in a warmup lap after the Sport racers's start, but I didn't feel the need. At registration I had to show my USCF membership card with NORBA rating because this race, unlike the others, was NORBA-sanctioned. That promised to increase the competition.

While waiting for my race under the Team Santa Cruz awning that Dan Henderson and Erik Thunstrom had thoughtfully erected, I managed to photograph quite a few of my old Sport competitors, and some of the Team Santa Cruz racers that I never got to watch before (photos here). I had planned on eating some carbs at this point, but kind of forgot. I eventually went to suit up in the Vanagon, but found David in there suiting down; turns out he reinjured his back during warmup. That sucked. I got him some ibuprofen from Harriet Riley but there wasn't much else I could do, so I made sure my water bottles had energy drink and warmed up a little on the road where the start line was.

It had gotten really windy by our 1:00pm start, with strong gusts out of the west. I pitied whoever would take the lead there. Mike (in my 45-54 group), Steve Hess (35-44) and Ron Riley (55+) lined up, and Norman too for some training laps. Well, the person I ended up pitying at the start was none other than Mike; he forgot this wasn't a short cyclocross race and went shooting ahead into the headwind, with the rest of us following like link sausages behind him as he zig-zagged up the slight hill. I guess he decided to attack first instead of me! Then he dropped back and I followed three guys (series leader Brett Lambert, Billy Hall and some other guy) onto the dirt trail to the right, then left, then right up a short steep pitch with pockets of loose dust and sand. All that sand and dust (courtesy of the drought), and numerous off-camber turns with sharp edges to catch our tires, forced us to concentrate on riding the narrow trail in spite of our limited faculties resulting from oxygen-deprivation.

I followed this lead group for less than half the first lap before I got stuck in a massive sand trap and lost about 20 feet; I never closed that gap. I decided to just ride at my pace and hope for the best as they slowly pulled away. I ended up drafting some guy from the 35-44 group before recovering and pulling around him, then caught up to Steve. He and I did some pace-lining, with him doing most of the work while I tried to rest some. I noticed he's faster on the descents than me; I tend to rest down hills anyway.

The paved back section we dropped into from the top of a sharp embankment was nice because we could rest in the tailwind and drink. Back on the dirt Steve's tires made his bike slew wildly through the sand traps, like mine. We ran them at 45 PSI, plus mine are only 1.8" wide; not ideal. Mike runs 2.4" tires at 35 PSI which would be great, but my old rim-brake hardtail can't even fit a tire that fat. I left Steve after he got stuck in powder on some new trail sections by the east park boundary where construction is under way for the new development. The bumps there were painful on my stiff aluminum hardtail too.

It was awesome hearing all of the raucous cheers from my Sport team-mates as I crossed the start line after the first lap! I think they cheered even louder because their season had already ended and they could let their hair down. I even had the energy to high-five David as I climbed painfully past the start line. This climb levels off a little but turns into the west, and the headwind, so there's no rest for the wicked. I think Steve caught back on later, as we crossed the start line together the second time, but he again got stuck. I caught up to a guy in Steve's group with a prosthetic lower leg and shamelessly drafted him for a while until Steve caught up to us. Then we both drafted him for a while until we hit a short level straight where I jumped past them. I didn't see them again, so I guess I had avoided working as hard as they did!

I dropped down into the paved back section and passed another guy, but jammed my shortened chain on the trail climb after it when I forgot to downshift into my middle chainring. Duh. I was sweating so much by now that my filthy lenses were obscuring the narrow trail; I vowed to throw them to my buddies at the start line before continuing. As I did so David and Grant Stoner held out beers to me; man, they have a cruel streak! Erik doused me with a water bottle, which was much nicer!

I tried keeping track of the laps, but I was surprised when I saw the "2" lap card; I thought there was only one to go! Groan. I was mostly riding solo at this point, but I did catch a guy in Santa Cruz Bicycles kit and drafted him for part of a lap before he signaled me to go ahead. This guy had passed Steve and I earlier, and Steve thought he was in my group, so I made sure to drop him hard even though I didn't recognize him. Turns out it was Richard Latorraca, a long-time local racer in Ron's 55+ group. And darned fast!

As I cruised in for the finish, feeling several years older, I knew I was doing no better than a distant 4th place out of 6, but just for fun I sprinted past the line and smiled through the sweat at my team-mates there. Woo-hoo! The pain was over! I thanked Steve for letting me draft him so much; he seemed to be OK with it! Mike sneaked in a little later; he's gonna' be super fast just in time for cyclocross season! (Make sure to join him for Thursday night intervals training.) My competitors were there too and we congratulated each other... but my mind was on that beer. I quickly retrieved my cooler from the Vanagon and shared some ice cold brews with my buddies. Beer never tasted so good! And I followed that up with Harriet's tremendous apple pie. I was in heaven!

David told me that I came in less than 30 seconds behind Brett, which was a huge improvement over the race at Toro Park where he was almost 8 minutes ahead of me. Even better, it turned out I was only 15 seconds back, and 25 back from Billy... if only I'd pushed a little harder... but 5:45 back from a new guy named Bill Sans. Still, it made me feel even better as Mike and I drove back on this perfect summer day.

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CCCX Mountain Bike Series #9, Fort Ord, CA USA, 6/30/2007

Mike Evans

CCCX # 9, Training Sir!

It was with much apprehension that I entered the last race in the CCCX mountain bike series. My last race was in January. I took the month of February off because of a high hamstring injury and rode softly for two months after that. It was just in the last month that I able to ramp up my intensity of my rides while feeling no ill affects of the aforementioned injury.

Teammates Dennis Pedersen and David Gill and I all commuted down to the old Fort Ord in my van. We were all racing in the Expert class got to leave town at the leisurely time of 10:00. Upon arrival David and I suited up to take a reconnaissance lap. The course was very hard, sandy and slippery. It was also pretty windy, but the temperature was about perfect. This would be David’s first race in a long time do to a lengthy back injury, but unfortunately David threw out his back half way through the recon lap. He didn’t do anything silly, it just seemed to hit him out of no where. This was quite surprising considering how strong he rode last week during the alley cat race. I really felt bad for David and could tell by the look on his face that he was quite disappointed as well.

While standing at the starting line, I really had no idea what to expect from my body. The whistle sounded and I got the hole shot up the long paved, directly into the wind straightaway. About 15 seconds into this, I had the realization that this was not a cyclocross race and what the hell was I doing leading out the field! I pulled off the front and went and hide in the back. A minute or so after we hit the dirt I had to come around a couple of rider, but I couldn’t close the gap to the main group. For the rest of the first lap I rode alone as my lower back became tighter and tighter. I started contemplating dropping out of the race, but I decided to go one more circuit to see how things went.

After the start of the second lap I was feeling better and the pressure on my lower back had eased some. I was also caught from behind by the first expert women rider. After she had been on my wheel for a while I took a corner wide to let her through as I thought I might be impeding her way, but as it turned out we ended up riding together taking turns pulling for the next 3.5 laps. She was certainly fast enough on the twisty sections and had a pretty good style of riding, but I would gap her on the power sections just a bit and this seemed only to be because I was turning much higher rpm at the base of the climbs while she would tend to mash a higher gear and bog down a bit.

At the beginning of lap 4 I was at the front when I noticed I was having a hard time controlling my bike. I knew what this meant, I was about to bonk! I immediately popped an Enervit and a few moments later I was feeling pretty damm good! About this time Beverly, the women whom I had been riding with had a bobble in the sand and I decided to punch it and dropped her for good. I then concentrated for the last 1.5 laps on riding as hard and as smooth as I could and was relived to have finished still feeling pretty good.

My intent for this race was to use it for training and to see where I was at in the build up for the cyclocross season. My post race analyst is my lungs felt pretty good, but legs were lacking in power and the fact my lower back became sore also showed me that I better increase my core program as well. A real bonus for me however was the fact I had no problem with cramping what so ever (not even later that night!). In the past this has been a real problem for me. I started taking 2 Sportlegs a day about a month ago and this has helped me immensely. It was also very cool to see some of my teammates who rode the whole series up on the podium. In all it was a pretty good day!

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Alley Cat, Santa Cruz, CA USA, 6/23/2007

Mike Evans

David Gill and I were debating what to do last weekend and had decided to hit up CCCX mountain bike race #8 on Saturday, but on Wednesday we saw the ad for the alley cat race in Santa Cruz on the How to Avoid the Bummer Life website and decided to try it instead. We then made a plan that we would do the Saturday morning road ride and go to coffee afterwards and then race back to my house and switch to cross bike and then go to the alley cat race. It was going according to plan until David called me Friday night and said he couldn't’t make the Sat. morning road ride, but would instead meet at my house and then we would go to the alley cat race. Upon hearing the news, Nancy promised to make me pancakes if I wouldn’t get up at the crack of dawn to go riding. I took the hint and slept in. After a late breakfast of eggs and toast (no milk=no pancakes) I went to my house and to meet David. David shows up in his kit smelling like he had just ridden for 2 hours. So asked him what was up. He informed me that his plans had changed and he went on the Sat. ride and had sent me an email at 11:00 the previous night to inform me. By looks of David I thought I had got the better end of the deal!

We rode down to the Bicycle Church on the end of Pacific Ave. Upon arrival I notice two things: 1. David and I appear to be much older than the 50 or so riders milling about. 2. We are the only ones deck out head to toe in lycra. We pay up and sign the release and receive the instructions/map. In no particular order we are to retrieve something from the Boardwalk to prove we were there, go over to the church located in the center of the circles on the Westside and pick up a spoke sitting in a bucket somewhere on the premises, go to Café Pergolesi and have the barista sign our card, go to the Goodwill near Harvey West and by a cup and utensils so you can eat and drink after the race (note: carrying around a glass in my jersey pocket gave me more incentive than normal on not to crash!). After Goodwill we were then supposed to head up the railroad tracks (avoiding north bound tourist train), up Fcon, Ucon, Blair Witch, Chinquapin, through the twin gates, over and down the Woodcutters Trail to Smith Grade, up Smith, down Empire, back into Grey Whale/ Wilder, down to the Eucalyptus grove, over to the Enchanted loop and finally finishing somewhere on Baldwin Loop. As you may have noticed, there was a lot of dirt in this alley cat and this is what appealed to David and me the most!

At the start, half of the herd lined up pointing in one direction and the half the other. Someone yelled go and I was not prepared for what followed: utter disregard for any rules of traffic right of ways! It was a free for all! I was even called a “pussy” for slowing down at a stop sign. With absolutely zero warm up the next thing that happened were my legs turning to cement! I struggled to keep up with David. Apparently his two hour warm up had done wonders for him! The whole urban portion of this race was a complete blur of dodging pedestrians, turistas, car and other cyclist. By the time we hit the train tracks, David had about 25 bike lengths on me and I was pedaling perfect squares. Even though I was feeling terrible, I did manage to pass a few people on the tracks. By the time I got to the top of the Ucon, I was sure I was going to chunder! I had no idea where D. Gill was or where I sat in the race, But I never saw another rider until Smith Grade where I was passed by three other racers. By the time I got to the top of Smith I was starting to feel human again. The decent down into Wilder was very high speed and I over cooked one corner and almost ended up in the forest! I arrived at the finish and counted 7 other riders. David was in second place, but over cooked a corner just before the end and was passed finishing in third. The guy who won was a messenger from S.F. and the guy in second rode a fixed gear! David and I both enjoyed this race a lot and after 3 very foamy beers (yep, somebody hauled a keg up the hill to a remote location in Wilder, plus a very large cooler and food!) we split.

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24 HOA, monterey, ca USA, 6/9/2007

rita leon

What a race! It was my first 24 HOA and no better way to race than with good friends and team mates... oh and sexy outfits. We were the Go Go GO Girls, Karen (SCCC) Henrietta, Michiko, (all 3 part of last years team) me , and Yvette (microphone girl)

Our compund was on top of the hill so we could see and hear everything. I was the Lemans starter which had is challenges getting cramped up on the first real climb with a bunch of "slow" guys. I did how ever get a push up the hill and a pat to follow from some red mini skirt lovin man! (which I was wearing over my shorts). My first lap was 1:15 but I bet with out a run and a few cluster f---- I would have been under 1:10 easily!

The night lap was the best it was my 3rd lap of the day and I was clearly "high" on nonstop energy! I wore my night outfit all shimmery and reflective.While riding, I stopped at the top of Lombard and gazed at the Big Dipper. I managed to finish the lap with minimal fog which I know the other ladies would only see white with 10 feet visibility. I was also lucky to take advantage of the Norman/Melanie compound. Every time I needed something I was taken care of. I even got a little low back rub at 1:30am! Sleeping was not easy either because I still felt like I was on my bike and would wake up jolted by dreams of rolling over ruts. My last lap was at 6am easy and familiar, ready to be done.... You almost want to be riding the whole time instead of working your self up and down as your laps come around...

It was so worth it and if you have never tried it Go for it! Form a team and have some SUPER fun!

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24 Hours of Adrenalin, Monterey, CA USA, 6/10/2007

Karen Kefauver

10 p.m. Saturday, June 9, Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey, CA—It was cold and windy as I waited for my teammate, Yvette, to come in from her lap on the hilly, 12-mile course. I rode in circles to keep warm by the start/finish area and tested my new Light in Motion light. I had mounted it on the handlebars of my trusted titanium Airborne mountain bike. After Yvette sprinted in, she handed me the small wooden baton at 10:15 p.m. I set off on my first night lap—I had not done any night riding since the 2006 24 Hours race. I was nervous, but also excited to ride under the stars—it was cooler for the sweaty climbs uphill and the darkness would cloak my slower pace. As part of a 5-woman relay team, Go Go Go Girls, I had been designated the last rider in our rotation. I had only completed only one other lap before this night time lap and did not have a great grasp of the course. That daytime lap had gone smoothly enough—although only 10 minutes into that ride, the left lens of my sunglasses bounced out and vanished in the tall grass along a steep rutted section. I felt lopsided with only one eye covered but managed ok. That section of the race course would return to haunt me again.

The Crash—a dirt-covered, powdered doughnut

I was feeling confident and strong for the first 15 minutes of the night lap. Then I smashed face-first into the thick dust. I was descending a very steep, rutted, technical section of the course. Despite my headlight, I lacked depth perception on this bumpy descent. I did not see the crash coming and had no time to brace for the fall. I flipped over the handlebars and BOOM—breath knocked out of me, my face in the dirt, the grit coating my lips and teeth. I lay moaning for a moment, terrified. Upon impact pain had shot up my jaw and neck. I lay still to assess that no bones were broken and caught my breath. I slowly picked myself up and moved to the side of the steep trail. I stood there debating whether to call it quits. I could easily walk back to the start line. I looked down and saw blood streaming from my right knee. Blood and dirt, a big mess.

I surveyed myself and was amused to see from head to toe, I looked like a massive dust-powdered doughnut. The grit was even filling my gloves and my shoes. A rider stopped to see how I was. I will always be grateful to that kind stranger who waited to make sure I was ok. He eventually took off and I just stood there, still shaken. Then another rider went by and called out: "Are you ok?" at the top of the descent. "Yes, I am ok," I assured him with more confidence than I felt. Deep down, I did know I was ok though I was deeply unnerved still. I was happy that he had asked and appreciated the genuine concern from this fast-moving racer. I turned to watch this cyclist navigate the steep section skillfully and was amazed to recognize the red helmet and Team Santa Cruz jersey: It was my beloved fiance Norman riding by! I cried out, "Norman, it's me!" No reply. Only the sound of his bouncing chain echoed on his dusty descent. I felt my heart sinking.

The Pivotal Moment

A part of me wanted to let loose with a mighty wail and cry the dust out of my eyes, but a bigger part of me latched onto something far more powerful: the Midnight Hula Hoop Contest! I still had a decent chance to make it back to camp before midnight! That was the magic hour in which the race organizers were hosting the traditional corn roast—all the corn on the cob you could eat! But what REALLY motivated me was that also at midnight there was the First Ever 2007 24 Hours of Adrenalin midnight Hula Hoop contest. Now anyone who knows me knows that I am a ferocious hula hooper! So despite my bloody knees, dusty face and shaken confidence, I walked and rode back to the start/finish area as fast I could, determined to get to that contest to prove myself. Along the ride back, Santa Cruz solo rider Sean Sullivan was very kind to me and insisted on stopping to make sure I did not have a concussion. Thanks, Sean!

With my big push, I made it back by about 11:50 p.m. and passed by Norman's tent, which was on the race course. Miraculously, he was at his camp instead of out on the course. "Norman, that was me!" I told him. "The one who crashed." He had no idea it was me because he was going so fast and could not hear me when I called his name. His heart was breaking when he saw me covered in dirt and I assured him it was ok and that I was touched that he had been so kind to offer to help a "stranger" in the night. We briefly rode our bikes hand and hand before we parted. He went back out to the course.. and I dashed over to the corn roast and hula hoop contest after I had handed Rita the baton for her lap.

Karen after her crash, and with her new hula shorts!
Karen after her crash, and with her new hula shorts!

So You Think You Can Hula?

At midnight, some folks were milling around. With adrenalin still surging, I demanded: "Where is the contest?" Right here, said a gal, staring at me. "Whoa! What happened to you?" the race announcer asked. "I crashed hard on the trail, did a faceplant," I said. "I can see that!" he retorted. "I rode as hard as I could JUST so I could do the hula hoop contest! Let's get this competition started!"

I downed two pieces of hot corn, helped round up a few other hula contestants and we were underway!

The ground rules were declared: he/she who hoops the longest is the winner! I knew I could hula hoop til dawn if need be. Soon enough, I out hooped the others, even showing my special John Travolta disco moves while hooping. At the end, I beat out a 10-year old boy and several young women, woo hoo! My moment of triumph at the 24 Hours of Adrenaline had arrived in the unlikely form of being the Hula Hoop Winner, how funny is that. My prize? A pair of fleece shorts! "Cowboy" of Fuzzy Duds led me to his stand to pick out my prize shorts—I chose the most outrageous multi colored paisley ones I could find. (See my podium shot at http://www.pbase.com/karenkefauver)

Then I sought medical attention for my wounds. A big thanks to Mark, the famous brewer and Mel's fiance, for generously volunteering to take a midnight stroll and look all over for the nearly-impossible-to-find first aid tent. Two thumbs down to 24 Hours for failing to have a good First Aid tent. Not only was it hard to find limping around at night, but when we got to the huge trailer, the reps from the Salinas Fire Dept. told me I could not come in the tent and grudgingly administered basic clean up and bandage in the cold windy night. (Hypothermia, hello???) Really appalling and I worried about anyone who was in worse shape than I ...

The Grand Finale

I hobbled back to camp well after midnight and woke up Michiko for her lap. The pain was setting in and I went to clean off my wounds in the light of the nearby bathroom. I was horrified to see that both my knees were grotesquely swollen. My left in particular looked like it had sprouted a lemon on top of the knee cap. I knew my race was over when I saw that. I got ice packs out, left the Go Go Go Girls team a note (since most were sleeping or sheltered from the wicked in wind in there tents). I said I would touch base in the morning but it looked doubtful I would ride again that day. I went to sleep about 2 a.m. and slept soundly til 5:30 a.m.

I got up then to find Rita preparing to go out on a lap. That was one of the lowest points of the race for me—I was physically unable to go, or more precisely, I could have gone, but the outcome for my knee could have been serious. It was a big risk. Nevertheless, by taking care of myself, I felt like I was letting the team down. I felt a mighty wall of blues, which fatigue and injury can heighten. Rita assured me it was fine that she ride in my place, but I was sad—for the team and for myself—the dawn lap is a glorious time to be on the trail while the rest of the world sleeps on a Sunday morning...

I was greatly consoled talking to Henri. She was unwavering that this was the 100 percent right decision. I felt better and she was thrilled by my hula hoop contest story and goofy shorts. I shifted moods and dedicated myself to being our team photographer for the remaining few laps.

I also had a better chance to monitor Norman's incredible progress in his solo 24 hour race. He had ridden steadily through the night, no sleep, supported by a great crew at camp that included Mark, Evan, Eric and Darik, who were also assisting Melanie Dominguez. I am happy to report that both Norman and Melanie had stunning finishes in their respective solo categories: Norman, 3rd place in the men's solo division, Melanie, 3rd place in the women's. Incredible results against steep competition! Bravo! It was also exciting to see Team Cloud Nine, consisting of dear friends Cory and John Caletti, and their teammates Dan'O, Eric and James win 2nd place in their tough 5-person co-ed category.

The Podium

As they say, the Best for Last. Here, in the conclusion of my race report, I offer a final salute to my fantastic teammates: Henrietta, our Team Captain, from Pacific Grove, Rita Leon of Team Santa Cruz, Michiko of Berkeley, Yvette of NorCal! You guys were super fine Go Go Go Girls. To Barbara, our team volunteer, we could not have done it without you. Thanks so much to each of you!

It was a pleasure to have our moment of fame as Third Place winners in the 5-woman category! Til next time!—Karen

For event photos, visit: http://www.pbase.com/karenkefauver

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