Masters 45+ B

I haven””””t posted about the last 4 races. For those of you that don””””t know, the BASP series is the most well run and attended. The fields are large and the competition is the best that you can get in the state, if not the country. Seeing that as of CX Nationals up in Bend recently there were several nor cal riders that were on the podium. For me, doing any kind of competition is difficult because for those of you that don””””t know I work nights, which puts a huge strain on the body. I have to closely monitor myself to make sure that I maintain my health, buy the bike ends up being a great way to do that.

After getting 2nd in the first race I was feeling great with my confidence but prior to the next race at Coyote Pt. on Oct. 25th, I had come down with a fever which was 101 the night before the race. I was determined to gut it out because I had a personal goal to be on the podium at the series end. The course was very technical, had a tough climb and a sand pit to run or ride. Unbelievably I was hanging with the top 3 for the first few laps but I crashed once and later my chain came off. This took me off their wheels and some dude from Santa Cruz passed me. I ended up holding on for 5th with 6th not too far behind. The days after the race I was in bed for 3 days with I am pretty sure Swine Flu. For the next two weeks I felt like crap and never seemed to recover the form that I had late in the road season.

The next race was at night at Sierra Point, Brisbane.  Again, I was riding well but then faded. The 35+ traffic was chaotic as usual. I came upon some guys that looked to have a different # series from the 35”’’s. I asked them if they were racing and one guy was very insulted and wanted to fight me there and then. His buddy in the same jersey said, “let”’’s just get him after the race.” That made me ride faster for a while! I was sitting 3rd and got passed by a Webcor rider, my nemesis by the name of Karl Ehlert. My plan was to ride his wheel but he kept attacking me and I settled for 5th again! I stayed and watched some other races with our series leader Zach Beekler and his Pen Velo team. The night races created a great party atmosphere, it was a lot of fun.

The 4th race was in Golden Gate Park which is my favorite setting/race. All of the fields were very full and the C”’’s maxed out at 150 riders. I had a great warm-up and like the other races it was nice to get a call up to be able to be at the front of the line. Our field had close to 60 riders so I was wondering if there were some phantom fast guys. The start is crazy with about 300m of slight up hill pavment and then straight into single track. I was third wheel going into the narrow stuff. Bodies and elbows were flying everywhere as riders were fighting for position. One of the fast guys had his brakes malfunction and dropped way back. Hey, I””ll take any kind of advancement in a cross race! We quickly caught the 35+ riders again and it was complete chaos. Some guys are cool and let you by but others are upset that they got passed by an old guy and then try and pass you back. One part of the course had a technical little drop in with very soft dirt. A 35+ guy went into it too slowly and crashed right in front of me. I narrowly avoided disaster by riding over part of his bike. I broke my rule by becoming upset and swore a couple of times. This cost me more energy and loss of focus. Before I knew it I was passed by my enemy Karl Ehlert again. I rode his wheel again and like the week before he attacked me until I could no longer keep pace and settled for 5th again. Since that day I am still going through the mind mill of was I just resigning myself to those guys being able to beat me? The next week was the finals and I had it in my mind to try a different race strategy.

Dec. 6th had finally come and once again I drove to Coyote Pt. which is just south of the S.F. airport. It was a cold day and a northwest wind was strong off the bay mixed with a few sprinkles. Coyote Pt. is always tough because the course is technical, it has a long beach run, a hard climb and sections where you can hammer a big gear. My plan was to race hard on the 1st lap, then go medium and turn it on at the end. I did that but found myself sitting about 9th place. I poured it on at the last lap and made up a few places to 6th. A rider that I had always beaten got 5th and he looked so damn happy to be on the podium for the first time in the series. My consistency in placings was good enough for 4th overall. I was very happy to have met my goal but as of that race I have been looking forward to spend some time off the bike as it was a lot of work to race late into the road season and then straight into cross.

Next year I will race the 45+ A”’’s but it will be a difficult venture. Guys that I know that were dominating the 45+ B”’’s last year were finishing in the bottom third of the A”’’s this year. Northern california cross has many past and present cyclocross champions. It will be humbling to line up behind some of those riders next season. My other goal is to recruit other Nor Cal Bike Sport riders to get out there and try it out. Brian Staby and I were ther only one”’’s to compete in this series. Next year I hope to have our own team tent, barbecue and families present. If you like to puke on the road bike, then why not come out and puke for 45 minutes…then it”’’s over.

Thanks for reading, Royce

Master 45+ B  2nd

This series is really important to me so riding Levi”’’s funDOH the day before was not necessarily the best idea. When I was warming up my legs felt fairly lactatey. The course had a lot of climbing for a CX course so I went out and did a bunch of intervals on the surrounding hills. After a 1/2 hour I felt great. The race was delayed by 30 minutes so for that period we all sat around and started to freeze with goosebumps. The race organizers didn””t give us a heads up or anything…it sucked.

I was not in a good position at the start but after 50 meters of racing I was already at the front on the way to the runup.  The runup was crazy with bikes and bodies flying into eachother as people sought the best footholds up the muddy hill.  On the backside we quickly caught the 35+ guys. Weaving around guys, creating lines and passing decisively is a big part of the race. I drifted back to about 5th place but always had the others within reach. One guy took a mechanical and I caught/passed another. A Webcore rider was always on my heels and I sensed that he was going to attack with 2 to go. I rode with reckless abandon on the very bumpy descent and powered the two climbs as hard as I could. I put a huge gap on him only to look ahead and see that the leader was about 5o meters ahead with a 1/2 lap to go. I made it to his wheel at the barriers and then hit the U-turn onto the pavement and then it was about a 100 meter sprint. I gave it all I had and ended up only making it by his rear wheel.  That makes 6 2nd places for me in the last two months. I am getting kind of tired of it…possibly looking into counseling to see if I have some kind of weird mental block going on that prevents me from winning.

On the down side, the race organizers screwed up the results for just about every race. Without explaining to anyone what was going on they had us wait around for hours. So, there was no podium/awards. As of this writing they have posted all of the results except the race I was in. Who knows, maybe I didn””t get second!

Thanks for reading, Royce

Teammates: None

Placings: Cat 3/4/5 35+   8th place

                   Cat 4/5 45+   2nd

The temp was at or over 95 degrees.  The course had six turns and was somewhat technical. A strong tailwind on the finish straight and headwind on the backside. In the first race I went to the front and did a huge pull to stay out of trouble. I looked back after 1 lap and one guy was with me with about an 8 second gap. We worked together and stayed out front for a couple of laps. When I had finished a pull I looked to see that the guy had fallen back to the field…DOH!  I eased up and went back to the field as well. The next lap the bell rang and a Corsa rider and two others ended up getting a sizable gap. Only about 4 riders did any kind of work at the front and a Corsa rider was always up front to disrupt any chasing. Somewhere in the chaos I got a prime. One rider blew up and came back from the break.  I ended up 8th.

I was debating the second race because of the heat. I stood in the town square under the fountains and went back to the car to just sit there and rub ice over my neck to get my body temp back down. I drank quite a bit and rode the trainer for 40 minutes. Just turning the legs with very little effort. I stuffed my bottle with ice and water and went to the start line again. The race was mixed 35+ and 45+. I nabbed a prime in the beginning. I just stayed at the front to stay out of trouble. I ended up getting 6th overall and 2nd in the 45+.  The prizes were nice and very unlike a Velo Promo race. Between my placings and two primes I ended up with 175 bucks. I will difinitely go back next year, hopefully with some teammates to counter the local Chico Corsa team dominance.

Thanks for reading, Royce

Master 35+ Cat 4/5

Teammates: None

I drove down with Kashy from 2 Wheel Racing. We left really early which was nice to have plenty of time to prepare for the race. The field was nearly full with close to seventy racers. I knew the course from last year, got in a few laps and had a relly good warm-up on the trainer. Kashy gave me some $5 pill that was suppose to “make me breathe better.”  Back to my days of Grateful Dead shows I was like, “hell ya, let”’’s take some pills.” I don””t know what I took but I felt great once the race started.

Wanting to stay away from any chaos I quickly got to the front and pretty much stayed there just surfing wheels. I did some efforts at the very front just to make people believe that I was working and not a total wheel suck. I contemplated some primes but mainly wanted to be situated for the finish.  Kashy rode many times at the front and ended up getting the most aggressive rider award! Luckily with five laps he dropped back to recover for the finish.

With 1.5 laps to go all of these Taleo guys came to the front. I jumped on their scene but then all of a sudden I am second wheel! Yikes, not the position I wanted to be in with one lap to go. Up the hill I got swarmed as Kashy and about 8 other riders went flying by me. I was in the center of all of these riders and could not go right or left and sitting about 10 deep. Just when I had given up hope a hole opened up in front of me just before the second to last turn. It was like an actual instinctual surfing decision of, “Thread this needle, do it NOW!”

When I blasted through that hole I was all of a sudden sitting 4th man behind Kashy! As we went through the last turn I followed his wheel all the way to the finish. We passed two fading contenders and a track rider guy blew pass us to take the win. In the final 20 meters I worked my way pass Kashy and threw my bike for second place and Kashy got third. We were on cloud nine the rest of the day. The negative side was that Velo Promo seemed very grumped up and did not do any podiums until later in the day. Oh well, what can you do. It was the great day that mattered.

Master 45+ cat 3/4

Place- 8th

A great corporate center type of course but not really up my alley. It was fairly easy to move up.  A bunch of little 2 man break attempts at the beginning.  I did one long pull with field in tow up to Sweeny and another guy. Took me way too long to recover, body/breathing not up to par. Just felt tired and unmotivated. With 10 laps to go about seven guys opened up a pretty good gap. I did some half-assed pulls and many seemed reluctant to work. Because of that I thought that the break would succeed. Paul Diaz lit it up with a huge accelleration and after that there were guys that put in enough work to help us all bring it back together with 3 to go.

I was sitting near the back and I said to myself, “come on dude, at least move up a little.”  With one to go I slid up on the outside and locked on a Boba”’’s wheel about 10 6-7 back. Paul Diaz (wish I was on his wheel) did a big attack on the backside about 200 meters before the last turn. With guys tightly on his wheel it would have been too dangerous to try and jump on that train. In the meantime, riders behind me started to go down like dominoes and it sounded so horrible. I stayed on the Boba wheel through the turn to the finishing straight and ended up passing about 4 guys. Paul hung on for 3rd or 4th…great job!

There have been so many crashes both locally and in the cycling world; Lucas Euser, Scott Nydam, Levi and the list goes on. I””m kinda getting the willies as I havent gone down since I have been back on the bike. Hopefully all the times I stacked in cyclocross last year counts for something.

On another note, Juliette Olson tore it up in the 4”’’s and got 2nd. Kashy from 2Wheel got second in the 5”’’s, way stoked for him. As of this writing I don””t know how Sally Sal Lucido did in the 35+. Anyways, it was a great event, close by and I hope they have it next year. Thanks for reading, Royce

Category 3/4 35+

Teammates- Jason Buckley

Royce-12th        Jason-19th

I was really excited about this race but a little nervous as well because during the warmup I saw how fast you could go into turn 4.  My wife, kids and brother were hanging out on that corner so I did not want to have any unhappy endings. The weather was perfect with a slight headwind on the backstretch. I did not have that good of a warmup and before I knew it I was at the start line.

In the first couple hundred meters I got to the front and stayed there. It was a good place to be because there was a lot of yelling and frustration behind me going through many of the turns. I was getting slightly annoyed that people were so uptight. Along with short tempers there were road hazards. Two lights were slightly in the course with the worse one being at the bottom of turn 4 where you could potentially take a line. The metal fence barriers had feet that extended into the course as well. So, there were factors to make one nervous, but the course definitely had a nice flow. Every time I ended up 15 deep it was a pain in the butt with more braking and more effort. At one point we were singlefile chasing down a split in the field. A Fusion rider in front of me started to fall off the wheel in front of him. I went to pass on his left and then he swerved left. We locked arms for a second and did the lean thing.  He then screamed at the of his lungs, “Do you want my fist to knock out all of your teeth?!”  Later while going by the start/finish there was the most god awful sound of guys crashing into the metal barriers. It sounded like someone was trying to grate metal through a cheesegrater.

Overall it was pretty easy to move up and the hill was not as much of a factor as I thought it was going to be. Any breaks where chased down in short order. As I kept of front I told myself that I gotta try for a prime.  Be more aggressive, more aggressive, take some risk.  But, that never happened and I was kinda kicking myself in the end for not doing it. My main thought while racing was to keep a front postion for the finish. The lap cards said 5 to go. They missed 4 and it still said 5 and then I was wondering if I had it wrong and then no, 3 to go.  It was hard to move up as a bunch of Fusion riders went to the front and it was strung out for the last 2-3 laps. On the last lap on the hammer was down, I was the 11th rider out of turn 4 and had only one guy pass me at the line.  Althought the entry fee was steep, I love these sort of technical downtown criteriums because it is such a mental game to fight for that postioning at the end. And, I always walk away having learned something more about bike racing.

Thanks for reading, Royce

Folks!,

For what it”’’s worth I thought I””d report on a slightly different race (more a long serious ride for others), The Sonoma- Napa County Terrible Two! Many are aware of it, but for those who are not, it”’’s hosted by the Santa Rosa Cycling Club, and it”’’s part of the California Triple Crown series of qualifying Double Centuries. It”’’s typically one third of the Triple Crown (600 mile, 45,000 ft of climbing) Stage Race - though it was rotated out for this year.

It”’’s fun and quite challenging. With 200 miles to cover, 16,000ft of elevation to climb, most of which is quite steep, it”’’s considered one of the 10 most difficult single day races in the United States. The route includes some of the following climbs:

All of Bennett Valley
Trinity Road - Oakville Grade
All of the Geyser Loop from Red Wine Road
All of Skaggs Springs Road to Highway 1 (includes Los Lomas and the Rancheria Grade)
All of Fort Ross Road from Hwy 1 to Cazadero
All of Bohemian from River Road to Occidental
plus many more rollers that connect the course

Please for give me if I exclude any NorCal Club team or Elite team rider!!! I””m limited to those I saw over a peloton of over 200, and the fact that I don””t have a current list of members.

Giampaolo Pesce (who I believe is a long standing member of the NorCal Elite team) tied for 8th place with a finishing time of 11:54! that”’’s extremely hard to do. I could train the rest of my life and never finish within an hour of that!
NorCal Club Team Club finishers include:

Mike Raasch 14:09 tied for 69th out of 221 riders!
(myself) Garth Powell 14:14 71st out of 221 riders!
Nick Kersmarki 14:22 tied for 79th out of 221 riders!

That places all three of us in about the upper third of all participants

Ironically, we were the three members I saw at the 5:30am start sporting NorCal Club Team jerseys, and by the end of a long grueling day we were all minutes apart from finishing together!

Also, fellow traveler, friendly competitor, great cyclist, and head Boba Doug McKenzie finished with an incredible time of 12:12!

The race was won (as usual) by Brian Anderson 11:11 and the closest rival was 12 minutes behind him. Brian is super human, occasionally trains with Levi, and this is the only “event” he participates in all year. Many highly skilled racers try to challenge him every year, but if your not a Category 1 racer with the skills to rip through 200 miles of leg killing steep hills you wont succeed.

Though the Terrible Two was out of rotation for the California Triple Crown Stage Race this year, the Mt. Tam Double Century will be the third stage instead. I””ll be there, perhaps some other member will be as well? If so I look forward to seeing you! It”’’s Saturday August 1st.
If anyone”’’s thinking of trying one of these, and going for speed while doing so, if you participate in road races you””ll do very well! You simply need to keep around high tempo and avoid much threshold or any V02 (if you get caught up in challenging another skilled rider in that way, slower less skilled riders such as myself will pass you by the 160 mile mark - pace yourself).
Congratulations to all who finished!
Thanks everyone,
Garth Powell
NorCal Club Team Member
7/9/09

People look at my toothpick body and say, “you must be a climber.”  I was about 20 years ago and it has not come back. I went into Ross”””’’s Epic knowing that my climbing sucks and that whatever pain I was to endure pales in comparison to what Ross has dealt with.  On the flats I didn””””t feel that bad. As soon as we started going up I couldn””””t establish a comfortable pace. I stayed with a fellow cyclocrosser that I shared the podium with a few times in the Bay Area and I thought he would be a good guy to follow. I faded off his wheel and felt worse and worse. Then I found myself trying to keep up with the lead 55+ guys.  I fell off those wheels and then before the flat section a guy with a triple chainring caught me and then I thought, “Ya, ya, ya, I love to be humbled.”  I think I turned in a worse time than last year.

Sonoma Mtn. Village Crit.  was a great event. The course was a lot of fun and I could suck wheel, do a few “heroic” moves at the front and at least feel/look like a bike racer. In the 45+ race it was brutal.  Attacks beyond belief, way harder that the E4”””’’s that I raced later. Paul Diaz of 2 Wheel had a very impressive prime win with a 400m sprint to hold off the other contenders. I went with some moves that looked like potential breaks and just when I was recovering the prime bell rings again and the wheels to watch were 200m up the road. That group quickly reorganized and the winning break went sailing down the road. There were many other break attempts and after a lot of suffering thank god they were brought back. With a few laps to go I had a great position being behind the 1-2-3 Morgan Stanley leadout for the field sprint. I got 7th overall.  If I had any kind of sprint I should have been 1st or 2nd in that situation. But the human pencil can only wind it up so far.  I gotta say once more, every time I race the 45+ 1-4 it is an absolute beating.

I registered for the E4”””’’s (which was immediately after the 45+ race) only because I thought Sal and Kevin were racing. I was pretty worked and I even thought about not doing it…”who would know?”  Racing with the E4”””’’s is way different than the masters. Guys yelling “inside” drives me absolutely crazy. All it tells me is that someone is taking a line that isn””””t there. Greg Schubert made a huge effort for a prime but got nipped at line. For the most part I just sat in and tried to find a good position for the finish. I was trying to figure out why with 5 to go the Colavita guys went to the front and did 3 consecutive laps of huge pulls, causing the field to go single file, only to bunch up with 2 to go. I thought that I was in a great spot but in the final stretch but my legs just didn””””t have it. I was thinking “whatever” when during the final 100m I heard some riders having temper tamtums because they got boxed or met some demise.

Now I am ready to rest, do some group rides and get ready for cyclocross season.

Thanks for reading, Royce

Category 4 35+
Placing 4th
Team mates: Royce

Great day to race a bike up a big mountain. Weather was perfect as we left the High School. They batched all the 4”’’s, 4 35+ and 4/5 45+ men together for the start. We must have started with about 35 or so. Royce told me to stay near the front because guys like to hammer the 6 miles to the hill. He was right and guys were sprinting from the gun and gaps were already starting before we turned left on 128. I followed Royce the whole way except when he was on the front keeping the pace high. We all got the bottom of the climb with out any problems. Pace never really seemed to pick up on the first little rise. That changed after the first pump house and I was just sitting about 5th wheel or so seeing how things would play out. After the road tilted pack up the climbers separated them selves from the rest of the pack. I was sitting in with 3 other guys. At the time I thought it was a cat4 and 2 35+. We each started taking turns on the front. I felt really good until @ mile marker 5 on Pine Flat. I needed to back off a little and save some for the end. A cat 4 rider caught and dropped me below the duck pond and I kept all 4 riders in sight. I hit the guard rail at 31 minutes with another cat4 rider in tow. I got him to work with me through the flat and then did not see him again after the goat herders house when the real pain was about to begin. I took on the last 2 miles with everything I had left and it was not enough to catch the 4 riders in front of me. I looked at my stop watch crossing the line and it was somewhere in the 58 minute range for the climb itself and 1:12ish for the total race time. I thought for sure I had 3rd. Even in the results it said I had 3rd. Comes to be that one of the riders was not in the computer as a 35+ so his time and bib number did not get logged in the right spot. Well they got it figured out and sure enough his correct placing was to be right above mine. I guess I should have signed up in the open 4s. i would have taken 2nd in that field. Oh well I am still happy with the result.

Thanks to Renee and Alexis for helping at the registration table and Heather and Gabe for their course marshaling and shouts of support. Thanks Riviera for the post race food and any one else that supported or raced to help support Ross Dillon and his family

And congrats to Hillary for a very strong 1st place win. I think she would have beat me up the climb with the P.R she set. WOW those Bartel”’’s are fast up those hills.

Thanks for reading

–
Jeremy Gotelli

11th place in Master 45+ 1-4

I had to do this race as I was born and raised in Monterey and watched my brother and his friends zoom around the same course when I was a kid.  Knowing that the field of “old pros” would be tough, I opted to race with them instead of dragging my family out of bed for an earlier race. I love the  downtown setting and the course is very challenging, not like a boring industrial park . After the start is a slight downhill into a very fun and fast sweeping but almost hairping right hand turn,  into a straightaway tailwind section with some bumps then turn three into an uphill stretch (50 x 23 0r 25) that even when you round turn four you think you are at the top but it”””’’s a long false flat into the wind and finish.

Having no teammates was a bummer but I was use to doing the “lone wolf” thing last year. I saw Paul Diaz from 2Wheel before the start and he said that he was cooked from already doing 2 races. I think he got a placing. Anyways, I stayed at the front and found myself at the front a little too much and dragged the pack around a couple of times in bridging up to some small break attempts. I figured it was good to feel some pain but I was worried because there had not been some huge attacks by some of the more noteworthy. Just as I was thinking that the prime bell rang and Rich Jaurez rode away for that to be off by himself for several laps. The pack turned single file for several laps with gaps opened everywhere. I was at my limit and was actually wondering how much longer I could hold on. After a few more laps of torture we caught Jaurez and it did slow down. Some of the San Jose riders were irritating as they would ride aggressively but then fall off wheels through turns.  There were some other attacks but they were easily brought back. The prime bell rang with 3 to go and Jaurez and another rider opened up a huge gap. The pack let them go and just fought for position for the remaining placings. With two to go it was single file and very fast. By how fast it was I was feeling like I would have nothing for the last lap. 1oo meters before turn 3 the guy in front of me overlapped the wheel in front of him and ripped off that guys rear derailleur. Everyong steered hard right or left to avoid what sounded like a crash. I came out of it alright but turning into the hill the gaps had opened and  I just gritted my teeth up the hill.I thought that I would get passed my many people on the straight before the finish but only one guy passed me , much to my suprise.

I was kinda bummed after the race about not placing but I felt better when I saw that every racer who placed higher was a cat 1-3.  Mainly it was really nice to come flying through that sweeping first turn and know that my family was watching. It would be great to have a big group go down next year and do this historic race.

Thanks for reading, Royce