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