2nd place in first race

With fifteen minutes to warm up I just road around the course doing just about every lap hard. Suprisingly I felt pretty good and it was not that hard to stay at the front. A Swift rider was off a little bit and he started to get a little further away. I decided to bridge up to him during a prime lap and pulled him around the backside of the course.  Before the last turn some riders caught us, I  sat up only to let the Swift rider go to the line unchallenged for the prime.  That told me that racers were passive and that meybe there was hope for this race.

The next several laps I kept at the front. I noticed that although some guys appeared to be strong, there was some bad bike handling with people braking too much through the turns and losing wheels. Something that I didn””””t want to be behind in the last few laps. I broke my rule of not keeping my mouth shut as some guy almost took me out while wanting a wheel that I was glued to.  In the last couple of laps I knew that 2Wheel was going to try and set something up. Sure enough, Matt Abbott came by with a lap to go and I was on his wheel but it appeared that his lead out man was on his wheel and Matt ended up in the wind.  A Safeway rider unleashed a crafty move before the last turn by riding the gutter between the left curb and a rider, an area barely big enough to fit through. So anyone else had to put themself into the wind. I got on that one last wheel and the Safeway rider had already opened up a good gap. As I followed this guy he was headed right for the truck and hay bales. Leaving my only option to go on his right. Not being a sprinter I just gave it everything I had and thought for sure I would be passed at the line as the sprint is so long. Suprisingly I ended up second.

Proving that I am not a sprinter, I am sure it looked ungly as certain people have been asking me if I was sprinting on the hoods.  I had a lot of fun. but to tell you the truth next week I would like to do some huge monster pull for other certain sprinters on the team.

Thanks for reading, Royce-the Human Pencil

5 hours- 70th out of 135

A week ago while reading the Two Wheel Racing forum I saw a post about doing this ride. It said something like, “is anyone interested in doing this moderately hard ride?”  Knowing what the Grasshoppers are about I had to laugh, the ride was going to be a torture-fest and that is why I made sure that I didn””””t forget my ipod.

Joe, Ernie and myself were the only ones in grey, the new color for the elite team? At the pee stop before Duncans Mills I went to the very front (because I knew I would never see it again) and watched Staby do a few solo attacks as we headed torwards Cazadero.  At the first hint of climbing the music went on. I had to yell at the top of my lungs at a few riders who were descending on the left side of the road around blind corners, as if there wasn””””t enough climbing for the day to sort things out. I was up in the top 20 and I just ignored how many people were passing me as I settled into my own rhythm. I ended up with a few riders who seemed to be riding at the same pace while I choked down a few gel packs and a banana. Before Tin Barn I was feeling pretty good and made a big effort to bridge up to another group only because I saw a NorCal Elite jersey which turned out to be Charlie Schneider.  After catching that group of five I was worked and get dropped but saw that “The Puker” was looking tired. We rode together for a while but he had spent the day puking the day before so I ended up riding with another human pencil named Adamen. We rode together till Kruse road and the pace was pretty good as new people were coming along and others that were ahead were cracking.  Cindy Carroll came by with a few male egos trying to hang on so I had to oblige.

At the last brutally steep pitch of Kruse Rd. the wheels were barely getting traction and everyone within earshot was saying things like, “Why are we doing this?” Cindy said something about cramps and disappeared. I rode solo to the Timber Cove school to get water and there were 3 cyclo-tourists getting water as well. I had to wait about 5 minutes for my turn. They commented on how I seemed to be in a hurry. The fresh water was great but my legs felt like lead weights. As I gathered momentum I got glimpses of riders ahead. I knew that I had to catch them before the Myers Grade descent.  Luckily I did and it was Ciindy with a Metromint rider. The tail wind was unbelievable along with all the fun descending.  I felt really good and took some long pulls between there and the bottom of Willow Creek while we picked up a Gianni, Whole Ath., and much to my suprise David Pauls. Part way up we went by some Gianni dude that was just laying there in the dirt. Said something about “taking a nap.”  I started having out of body experiences and although we were almost done, the end seemed so far away. Cindy and I traded setting the pace and gave eachother encouragement because it was PAINFUL. We walked the two sisters but hammered the last couple miles and flew past one dude before the finish. 

Since being back on the bike for the last two years, I have not done a five hour ride.  I feel pretty good about being able to do a ride like this while working nights, raising a family and all of the things inbetween. Although finishing a whole hour down from the leaders, I think that all of the riders on these Grasshoppers have similiar experiences in pain and suffering and the sense of accomplishment.  At the end of the day I heard someone say, “I felt great, I felt bad, I felt great, I felt bad, then I felt really bad.”  That sums it up for me. I had to lay fetal position in my car for a half  hour until I could drive home.Thanks for reading- Royce

Raced category E4 amd M35+ 4”’’s finished 5th and 7th respectively. Missed seeing anyone from NorCal but had 2 Wheel (Star, Matt) and Colavita (Michael, Phil, and ?) company in the races.

The course is a wide open excellent surfaced circuit with 3 corners and a big wide sweeping curve. The weather was perfect with light winds and the temps awesome for crit racing.

E4”’’s were off at 8:00 AM with a nearly full field, safe race with a few squirrelly riders but overall an incident free event - finally! Rode near the front most of the race - made a effort with a breakaway but there was no heart in it with my partners so we were gobbled up in pretty short order, settled back in and set up for the finish at about 6th wheel on the corner. Had the racer in front of me brake hard in the final corner - what the hell???? Lost about 5 bike lengths and a few places - jumped to bridge and closed back to 5th - with a guy nipping for 4th with a well executed lunge. pics show him behind, fractionally ahead at line - an inch, maybe less, and behind again immediately afterwards - doh! Lesson to be nearer the front on the last corner and to sprint hard even if you think you have the guy next to you nailed.

M35+ Started at 9:30 AM with the largest field of the day. I rolled the course again near the front with occassional efforts to keep to the front as riders did the wrap around the outside of the pack and drop back into the center thing. Pretty uneventful race over all although I had one racer apex a corner badly and smack me pretty good with 2 to go. Not a big deal at this point but I thought he was going to freak out from the look on his face, talked him through it “you doing good - just hold it together” - thankfully he chilled and nothing unpleasant happened. I heard later that there was a wreck in the event but it was far enough back that I did not hear it - well almost two races that were uneventful. Near the front on the bell lap but got funneled inside the group by riders shooting up the inside. Quickly went from top 8 to 40th in the field before I could find a hole and escape the riptide pulling me backwards inside the pack. Got to the outside and jumped at half a lap to go, closed into the last corner at what I thought was nearly 10 th rider - pushed a little in the sprint but had bikes everywhere in front of me and figured I was hosed so sat down and coasted in 7th. Lesson from above still applies - but to make certain you can be near the front don””t let yourself get caught in the pocket with riders wrapping around both sides on the bell lap…

This is a great race - safe course, wide open turns, great surface, with a few bot dots but nothing to worry about. The race is won before the last corner - as it is fairly close to the line and the final corner can be taken at full speed with out any brakes unless you have a dim-wit in front of you :-). Best to be in top 2-3 on the final corner - next year we should put a team down there and take home some of their money and prizes.

Cheers,
Kevin

Well in spite of the dire predictions of flooding on the level of biblical proportions the Boba TTT event went off on schedule with a good number (13) of quality teams making an appearance. The Nor Cal club team made their TTT debut with a great group of 9 dedicated masochists. The roster included our beloved father of 26 J-Bird, “Animal” Ernie, Jason, Pat S., Sal, Nick, Sandbagger Joe, “Rolls” Royce, and me.
We had a couple of Elite riders try to join but we had a full roster and judging from the massive illness striking that group we preferred they be quarantined away from the Nor Cal club contingent – it could be they had something worse than the swine flu judging from the whining – err, I mean symptoms they complained about. Sorry Jonathan – we can’t let the chop busting die down too soon. Fortunately, they were placed behind us in the start and provided plenty of motivation for the club riders to work hard to avoid any contaminated air that may come from their labored wheezing in front of us.

The group had a very basic plan; go out fast but take long pulls with the strongest riders at the front allowing the others to settle in and be ready for the switch to a rotating pace line at the turn. The plan after that was to suffer dearly together to the last hill on Chileno – hopefully. Above all communicate during the race. As with most plans parts of it worked well. The start went awesome, we picked up a huge jump on the team in front of us and shortly after the first turn we were passing our first group of rabbits – mostly intact. As we shifted towards a double rotating pace line we ran into some challenges staying smooth. We were still moving fast and Ernie was seriously ripping people’s legs off out there – he was pulling more than anyone, followed by lots of work from Pat who was feeling pretty perky himself. Jason and Joe and I did our best to give these guys some breaks with Jason getting stronger as the ride went on. The others were game and slipped in rotations wherever they could but the pace was pretty brisk. The group stuck together until we passed what I think was our 5th team on the road at mile 10 which caused a little crack in our group and we shed a couple of our smarter co-conspirators (J-Bird, Sal, and Rolls - Royce that is) who stayed back as bait for the Blue Team led by our very own Jonathan Lee (he was doing some charity work for 2 wheel). Nick hung in gamely for some more of the nastiness that Ernie and Pat were heaping on us – picture Ernie screaming along at the front with Pat yelling at us at the top of his lungs to “push.. push..” All the while something salty was running down my cheeks – I don’t think it was sweat – maybe tears of pain filled joy. Somewhere in all this fun Nick snuck out the back, had I known I would have joined him. As we entered the final section on Spring Hill I started cramping and figured I was short for this world but hung in there long enough to get to the last hill where my calf finally through a piston and locked up completely and I watched as the final 4 selection slowly crept away with Jason at the lead – I chased down the hill to revel in a clear view of the first ever Club team time posting of a 47:15 - not too bad – in fact damn good, in fact I am quite proud of our first time out showing and 3rd place finish.

In retrospective – with a few tweaks in the Chileno road section and I think we can pull in some more time… who knows how we will do next time out J

Lot’s of fun and mutual ribbing – to go along with the mandatory suffering.

Kevin