Pescadero Road Race
OK, it's killing me that I haven't updated my blog in like twenty gazzillion years. So here we go...
The weekend, June 24 and 25th, was another double header. I had the Pescadero road race on Saturday and the 8Hr Team Relay race at Lake Sonoma on Sunday. Since, the 8Hr team race was just for fun (i.e. and excuse to do a couple laps on a cool course and drink beers with friends all day) I didn't think two much of it.
Well, as it turns out...Pescadero was just as hard as I thought it would be, if not harder. Especially since I've not super religious about training. That is unless you call 2-3 rides in a 3 week period training. I'm sure some people would fight me on this and say one ride/week actually counts as training...well folks, not for this boy ;-)
Any who... I'd signed up for Pescadero months ago and I'd be damned if my lack of fitness would prevent me from embarassing myself in the 5's, yet again I might add ;-) So it's 530 am saturday morning and my alarm clock (actually my cell phone) is beeping at me. My first thought is to blow off the race and stay in bed with my honey, but then reason trumps passion and I'm like OK, feet on the floor. I stumble into the kitchen and get the coffee maker going. Just the smell of fresh coffee alone is enough to remind me that it's RACE day!
I pop into the garge for some last minute bike maintenance....um yea, that would be installing new rear brake pads as I was very close to rubbing metal on metal. I figured Pesky would be the first race I did with real climbing and subsequently real descending. Having pre-ridden the course two weeks earlier, when it was foggier, I knew I needed new brakes pads if I were to survive the race.
I arrive at the race site, after getting stuck in back of some slow ass drivers. I saw bike in or on top of the cars and my thought was, come on people you are cyclist, you should know how to take a fricken turn at speed...jeez! I head over to reg. and notice that it is pretty nipply outside. I'm glad I brought my base layer and arm warmers...dang that tricky coastal weather.
I hop on the trainer and proceed to warm-up for about 30 minutes, not quite an hour, but this will have to do. I unleash my Bianchi from the trainer and head over to the start area. Turns out they are about 20 minutes behind schedule, so I put my bike down and proceed to do some funky yoga type streches. I'm secretly hoping this will intimidate the competition ;-)
And they're off...everyone behaved themselve on the promenade thru the town of Pescadero and then as soon as we left town the pace picked up a notch. We proceed this way until stage road turned up hill and then people started going hard, but not balls out. I did what I need to stay within the top 20, but I was already hurting and already wondering if I would be able to finish the race. All the road races I done previously I'd cramped at and now with a lapse of traing I thought to myself, surely I'm doomed and will be lucky to finish. What I did realize coming into this race was that I wouldn't have the fitness to pull the field around like a damn-mountain-bike-new-to-road and instead would have to be more tactical.
Which brings me to my game plan. I had the pleasure of meeting a cat 1 roadie type who goes by the name of Justin and races for Organic Athlete. His advice was to attack on the second bump of stage road in the second lap. Not having done the race before and being a road newbie I had not better plan, so I made Justin's plan mine.
As we crest the first bump of stage road my adrenaline is flowing and I'm a little pissed that so many people got in front of me. So I click into my biggest gears and start cranking on the pedals. I bobbed and weaved my way thru riders as we decended and accelerated in the short straight sections. I ended up leading the pack into the second bump of stage road. However, since my plan was to launch my attack in the second lap, I slowed down up stage and settled into a pace. Once again I moved back into about 20th position and then repeated the fight for position on the descent. Once on 84 we settled into something sorta resembling a double paceline. I positioned myself somewhere in the top 10 and allowed my legs to continue warming up.
Nothing too exciting until we made a right Pescadero Rd. We roll by the feed station, I grab a bottle and ditch a bottle and continue up to Haskin's Hill. This is when the full on assault begins. My plan was to settle into a pace and tempo up the hill and that's what I did. Probably about a 1/4 of the way up people started pooping out and I started passing people left and right. At that moment I thanked my lucky stars that I'm some sort of a climber. I could hear people gasping for air to my right and see people weaving to my left. Meanwhile I picked up the pace and focused on my breathing.
We hit the top of Haskin's, I'm proably in about 15th place. I click into my big ring and stand up to get the wheels spinning for the descent. For as much fitness as some of these CAT 5 guys have, they sure don't know how to descend. I passed about 10 people on the descent and believe you me it was not an easy thing to do down a twisty descent. I ended up in a group of Dolce Vita guys and a guy wearing an Eden kit. We trade pulls as we wound our way back to stage road. At one point my legs were feeling a bit twingy so I eased up a bit and fell into about 10th position.
Now i'm getting excited cause my plan if attack will soon be set in motion. I'm resting up as much as I can. We hit the town of Pesky and roll thru. I eat a couple dates I stashed in my pocket jersey and wash it down with a few swigs of energy drink. We hit stage road and the pace picks up. Once again I fall into about 20th position, but I'm content to sit in and let my legs rest a bit. We crest the climb and I pop into the big ring and hammer down hill. I pass as many people as I can. We reach the big left hand sweeper into the second bump of stage road. I'm in about 10th position and pick up the pace. By the time we hit the left hander into the Eucalyptus tree I'm cranking on the pedals and passing people. I maintain a good pace and then settle in a bit. Now I'm really frick'n hurting, so I recover a little bit, but people start catching up. Fortunately the descent is coming up. I click into the big ring again and stomp on the pedals.
I flying down the hill and picking the rest of the riders off. I can see one guy in the distance and make him my target. I eventually catch the guy and we descend together the rest of the way. We make a right on 84 and there are not riders in sight. I turn back and see nobody and then I turn the guy and I'm like what's the plan now. He shakes his head and says we have to let the front of the pack catch us and work with them up to Pescadero road. Damn it! I could already feel the burn in my legs and knew I couldn't do it alone, so I reluctantly agreed.
Soon enough the front of the pack caught us. Unfortunately, the front of the pack was still about 20 people. Fortunately, the attack I launched up stage helped to shed about half the field ;-) I quickly realized just how fatigued my legs were and I fell to the back of the pack where I spun as much as I could in hopes of recovering for the finish up Haskin's hill.
Well, no such luck. We hit the right hander to Pescadero road and the aid station and me legs are pissed at me. Even in my weekend state, I'm such a water bottle whore, that I make sure to dump the cheap little water bottle I got on the first lap and grab one of the big tall ones! I continue on up to Haskin's with my tail between my legs. I know the rest of the climb is just going to be a grunt. The only saving grace of that final climb was to have my girlfriend cheer me on about half way up. I managed to pick off one person and finished in a crappy 24/40 people. I'm pretty sure we started with 50 people, not sure what happen, but I'll choose to believe that I set such blazing attack the second time up stage road that I shed those last ten riders...hey, a boy can dream right ;-)
Results
Next roadie event is the Watsonville Crit...which just so happens to be my hometown!
Happy trails...err I mean Happy roads,
Isaias
The weekend, June 24 and 25th, was another double header. I had the Pescadero road race on Saturday and the 8Hr Team Relay race at Lake Sonoma on Sunday. Since, the 8Hr team race was just for fun (i.e. and excuse to do a couple laps on a cool course and drink beers with friends all day) I didn't think two much of it.
Well, as it turns out...Pescadero was just as hard as I thought it would be, if not harder. Especially since I've not super religious about training. That is unless you call 2-3 rides in a 3 week period training. I'm sure some people would fight me on this and say one ride/week actually counts as training...well folks, not for this boy ;-)
Any who... I'd signed up for Pescadero months ago and I'd be damned if my lack of fitness would prevent me from embarassing myself in the 5's, yet again I might add ;-) So it's 530 am saturday morning and my alarm clock (actually my cell phone) is beeping at me. My first thought is to blow off the race and stay in bed with my honey, but then reason trumps passion and I'm like OK, feet on the floor. I stumble into the kitchen and get the coffee maker going. Just the smell of fresh coffee alone is enough to remind me that it's RACE day!
I pop into the garge for some last minute bike maintenance....um yea, that would be installing new rear brake pads as I was very close to rubbing metal on metal. I figured Pesky would be the first race I did with real climbing and subsequently real descending. Having pre-ridden the course two weeks earlier, when it was foggier, I knew I needed new brakes pads if I were to survive the race.
I arrive at the race site, after getting stuck in back of some slow ass drivers. I saw bike in or on top of the cars and my thought was, come on people you are cyclist, you should know how to take a fricken turn at speed...jeez! I head over to reg. and notice that it is pretty nipply outside. I'm glad I brought my base layer and arm warmers...dang that tricky coastal weather.
I hop on the trainer and proceed to warm-up for about 30 minutes, not quite an hour, but this will have to do. I unleash my Bianchi from the trainer and head over to the start area. Turns out they are about 20 minutes behind schedule, so I put my bike down and proceed to do some funky yoga type streches. I'm secretly hoping this will intimidate the competition ;-)
And they're off...everyone behaved themselve on the promenade thru the town of Pescadero and then as soon as we left town the pace picked up a notch. We proceed this way until stage road turned up hill and then people started going hard, but not balls out. I did what I need to stay within the top 20, but I was already hurting and already wondering if I would be able to finish the race. All the road races I done previously I'd cramped at and now with a lapse of traing I thought to myself, surely I'm doomed and will be lucky to finish. What I did realize coming into this race was that I wouldn't have the fitness to pull the field around like a damn-mountain-bike-new-to-road and instead would have to be more tactical.
Which brings me to my game plan. I had the pleasure of meeting a cat 1 roadie type who goes by the name of Justin and races for Organic Athlete. His advice was to attack on the second bump of stage road in the second lap. Not having done the race before and being a road newbie I had not better plan, so I made Justin's plan mine.
As we crest the first bump of stage road my adrenaline is flowing and I'm a little pissed that so many people got in front of me. So I click into my biggest gears and start cranking on the pedals. I bobbed and weaved my way thru riders as we decended and accelerated in the short straight sections. I ended up leading the pack into the second bump of stage road. However, since my plan was to launch my attack in the second lap, I slowed down up stage and settled into a pace. Once again I moved back into about 20th position and then repeated the fight for position on the descent. Once on 84 we settled into something sorta resembling a double paceline. I positioned myself somewhere in the top 10 and allowed my legs to continue warming up.
Nothing too exciting until we made a right Pescadero Rd. We roll by the feed station, I grab a bottle and ditch a bottle and continue up to Haskin's Hill. This is when the full on assault begins. My plan was to settle into a pace and tempo up the hill and that's what I did. Probably about a 1/4 of the way up people started pooping out and I started passing people left and right. At that moment I thanked my lucky stars that I'm some sort of a climber. I could hear people gasping for air to my right and see people weaving to my left. Meanwhile I picked up the pace and focused on my breathing.
We hit the top of Haskin's, I'm proably in about 15th place. I click into my big ring and stand up to get the wheels spinning for the descent. For as much fitness as some of these CAT 5 guys have, they sure don't know how to descend. I passed about 10 people on the descent and believe you me it was not an easy thing to do down a twisty descent. I ended up in a group of Dolce Vita guys and a guy wearing an Eden kit. We trade pulls as we wound our way back to stage road. At one point my legs were feeling a bit twingy so I eased up a bit and fell into about 10th position.
Now i'm getting excited cause my plan if attack will soon be set in motion. I'm resting up as much as I can. We hit the town of Pesky and roll thru. I eat a couple dates I stashed in my pocket jersey and wash it down with a few swigs of energy drink. We hit stage road and the pace picks up. Once again I fall into about 20th position, but I'm content to sit in and let my legs rest a bit. We crest the climb and I pop into the big ring and hammer down hill. I pass as many people as I can. We reach the big left hand sweeper into the second bump of stage road. I'm in about 10th position and pick up the pace. By the time we hit the left hander into the Eucalyptus tree I'm cranking on the pedals and passing people. I maintain a good pace and then settle in a bit. Now I'm really frick'n hurting, so I recover a little bit, but people start catching up. Fortunately the descent is coming up. I click into the big ring again and stomp on the pedals.
I flying down the hill and picking the rest of the riders off. I can see one guy in the distance and make him my target. I eventually catch the guy and we descend together the rest of the way. We make a right on 84 and there are not riders in sight. I turn back and see nobody and then I turn the guy and I'm like what's the plan now. He shakes his head and says we have to let the front of the pack catch us and work with them up to Pescadero road. Damn it! I could already feel the burn in my legs and knew I couldn't do it alone, so I reluctantly agreed.
Soon enough the front of the pack caught us. Unfortunately, the front of the pack was still about 20 people. Fortunately, the attack I launched up stage helped to shed about half the field ;-) I quickly realized just how fatigued my legs were and I fell to the back of the pack where I spun as much as I could in hopes of recovering for the finish up Haskin's hill.
Well, no such luck. We hit the right hander to Pescadero road and the aid station and me legs are pissed at me. Even in my weekend state, I'm such a water bottle whore, that I make sure to dump the cheap little water bottle I got on the first lap and grab one of the big tall ones! I continue on up to Haskin's with my tail between my legs. I know the rest of the climb is just going to be a grunt. The only saving grace of that final climb was to have my girlfriend cheer me on about half way up. I managed to pick off one person and finished in a crappy 24/40 people. I'm pretty sure we started with 50 people, not sure what happen, but I'll choose to believe that I set such blazing attack the second time up stage road that I shed those last ten riders...hey, a boy can dream right ;-)
Results
Next roadie event is the Watsonville Crit...which just so happens to be my hometown!
Happy trails...err I mean Happy roads,
Isaias
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