wow...thatz how you suffer! double race weekend.....Patterson Pass\Howell Mountain Challenge Double whammie...Part 1
So after Downieville I had planned to take a break from both mountain and road and rest-up for 'cross season. So I kinda took a break from regular bike training and took up a less traditional type of training which involved mostly drinking and commuting to the Caltrain. I guess I did accidentally get some decent training in as I did Murhpy's crazy 90+ mile mixed terrain enduro. While a great ride and fitness builder, it took me two weeks to recover from 'cause I had the bright idea to do it on my rigid singlespeed.
Anywayzzzzz....now I'm thinking, well I had decent finishes at Pesky(11th) and Leesville(12th), so I knew my fitness was on an upward path. Along the way I managed to claim 3rd place at Skyline Park mtb race and 2nd place at Downieville(my A race of the year). Next up was Districts which I was not sure I was going to do, but jumped in last minute cause my weekend cleared up. I ended up with a decent finish around 11th which motivated to do some more races culminating with the Giro di SF on the road side and SingleSpeed Worlds on the mtb side.
The race details:
Patterson Pass RR
Elite 4
12/63
dist - 66 miles; time - 3:25:10 ; climb - 5709ft
Next up, Patterson Pass and Howell Mountain Challenge. I'd heard Patterson was a brutal race due to the hills, wind and heat. Yup, Patterson Pass RR lived up to it's reputation. It is the most fockin' brutal race I've done this year...maybe ever. The hills were not only steep, but also windy. And in order to recover on the course you had to be really smart about sucking a wheel. It was difficult to find shelter from the wind, which constantly changed direction.
After talking to Ben about superweek he made a suggestion to me. He said "drink your warm up and use embrocation, forget the trainer." So I gave it a try at Districts. What does this mean you say, it means drink "something dirty" like a Redbull, Monster, Rockstar.
I found Rockstar Juiced to be my favorite. The guava flavor is pretty sugary, but the Pomegrante is my favorite...not too sweet.
Dave, Ryan and I roll up to the race start about 7am. Get reg'd and start the process of getting race ready. In between gettin' "Juiced" I throw on the kit and slather on some Leg Salsa Pro Glaze on the legs and go roll around on the bike.
From having studied the course profile
I knew a break in the early laps would not stick. It was going to be a race of attrition and then blow apart in the 3rd lap up the big climb. My plan was to race quite a bit smarter than I have been. This mean not leading up the climbs, not taking all the wind at the front of the descents and sucking as much wheel as possible till the 3rd lap.
The whistle blows and we're off. The pack is pedaling slower than a sunday ride with grandma. As we start making our way up the first climb the winds is already blowing like mad. We crawl up the hill. Nobody want to go to the front because it's so windy. Ok, we made it up the first climb. I move nearer the front, top 10 for the descent. I'm a better descender than the average 4 so I want to make sure I don't have to ride my frick'n brakes all the way down. Turns out that the winds is a pretty big factor on the descent. So I stayed with the plan and just sucked some wheels as we descended.
The first big descent basically rolls you in to the next significant climb which is about 500ft without the supper steep section of the first 1200ft climb. Again the packs sticks together. Then in to another longer windy descent and thatz the first lap.
During the second lap we hit the climb with a bit more speed. Somebody yelled out that we should rotate on the front, so about 15 of us took turns haphazardly taking short pulls of the the windy climb. The tricky thing about the big climb is that there is constant wind and a constant grade for the first half. Then you reach a short plateau, where normally you would be able to rest and recover a bit, but not at Patterson. As you come around the corner to the flat section, you are immediately blasted with a fierce headwind. So the pack stays together here, then comes the super steep pitch where we started dropping people. I made up in the top 10 and maintained position on the descent. On the second hump, it was obvious people were hurting. Although my legs did hurt I was already feeling much better than the first lap.
1 lap profile
As we are coming around for the 3rd lap, I'm just waiting for the attacks to begin. I sit in, rest and get ready. The front of the pack accelerates and I go with it. We end up down to about 15 guys. We are trading pulls up the climb into the wind. Then Kurt, from wheelgirl.com, comes around the upward bound train and just rides away from us. I tried to jump but didn't have the juice in my legs. Two or 3 other guys jumped and went, it was a Davis guy, a godspeed guy and a pac state guy. Our pace has quickened and now I'm in survival mode, telling myself not to get dropped this god damn far into the race. I find a good pace and suckwheel like a mofo. My legs recover and I come around 6 or so people and re-insert myself in the paceline. I figure if I slow down it is to me benefit to make people have to go around me. I kept doing this as we headed up the hill. Then we hit the steep pitch and I'm struggling not to start rolling backwards. I'm standing on my pedals and humping the damn bike for all I'm worth. I make it to the top about 6th in our group.
We hit the descent and there's about 7-8 of us. I start talking to the guys around me and organizing a chase group. Turned out that Pacific State Bank had a guy in the break and was kinda just sitting in. I got really annoyed and so Taylor, Colavita, and I tried to initiate a break in our chase group. We managed to drop a few guys up the second climb and now it was like 5 of us in a group. You know it's really hard keeping people motivated in a chase group, people pull to hard or don't soft pedal when they pull of the front. It's interesting trying to work with people who aren't your teammates, but at the same time if you are nice and encouraging(I learned this from Ben) people will listen to your constructive criticism. Finally I got the group rotating pretty well and was whooping and hollering as we were really moving pretty good.
At one point I said, alright, let's catch the leaders and we upped the pace. I think we dropped 2 more guys and along the way to the finish we picked up 2 more guys. I told them to hop in, sit in and recover and then work with us. We are about 3 miles from the finish and there is slight little stupid insignificant little bump before you pass under H580 towards the finish. All of a sudden my legs are just not working any more and I'm standing on the pedals struggling to turn them over.
I watch the 6 guys in the chase group i frick'n organized creeping away from me. They hit a little descent and I'm hosed because I can catch back on. So after all that hardwork, I come in to the finish stretch and sprint across the line alone. Lame, lame, nitecourt in it's 5th season laaaaame! So I got 12th instead of 6th. I know I could have taken the guys in my group at the line had my legs not given out on me...whatever!
Cool thing is I've made quite a few allies this year. Next year, if they haven't already upgraded to the 3's, I'll have a good 4 guys to work with on top of my mousemates!
After the results were published I was amazed to see that 1/3 of the field did not finish the race....yea, Patterson was that frick'n hard!
We couldn't get to El Charro fast enough. I tried to enjoy my delicious chicken torta and not be distracted about the fact that the Donut Wheels was just across the street. Drove home, dropped the boys off, went home and passed out for 2hrs. Then time to get ready for the mountain bike race sunday!
Anywayzzzzz....now I'm thinking, well I had decent finishes at Pesky(11th) and Leesville(12th), so I knew my fitness was on an upward path. Along the way I managed to claim 3rd place at Skyline Park mtb race and 2nd place at Downieville(my A race of the year). Next up was Districts which I was not sure I was going to do, but jumped in last minute cause my weekend cleared up. I ended up with a decent finish around 11th which motivated to do some more races culminating with the Giro di SF on the road side and SingleSpeed Worlds on the mtb side.
The race details:
Patterson Pass RR
Elite 4
12/63
dist - 66 miles; time - 3:25:10 ; climb - 5709ft
Next up, Patterson Pass and Howell Mountain Challenge. I'd heard Patterson was a brutal race due to the hills, wind and heat. Yup, Patterson Pass RR lived up to it's reputation. It is the most fockin' brutal race I've done this year...maybe ever. The hills were not only steep, but also windy. And in order to recover on the course you had to be really smart about sucking a wheel. It was difficult to find shelter from the wind, which constantly changed direction.
After talking to Ben about superweek he made a suggestion to me. He said "drink your warm up and use embrocation, forget the trainer." So I gave it a try at Districts. What does this mean you say, it means drink "something dirty" like a Redbull, Monster, Rockstar.
I found Rockstar Juiced to be my favorite. The guava flavor is pretty sugary, but the Pomegrante is my favorite...not too sweet.
Dave, Ryan and I roll up to the race start about 7am. Get reg'd and start the process of getting race ready. In between gettin' "Juiced" I throw on the kit and slather on some Leg Salsa Pro Glaze on the legs and go roll around on the bike.
From having studied the course profile
I knew a break in the early laps would not stick. It was going to be a race of attrition and then blow apart in the 3rd lap up the big climb. My plan was to race quite a bit smarter than I have been. This mean not leading up the climbs, not taking all the wind at the front of the descents and sucking as much wheel as possible till the 3rd lap.
The whistle blows and we're off. The pack is pedaling slower than a sunday ride with grandma. As we start making our way up the first climb the winds is already blowing like mad. We crawl up the hill. Nobody want to go to the front because it's so windy. Ok, we made it up the first climb. I move nearer the front, top 10 for the descent. I'm a better descender than the average 4 so I want to make sure I don't have to ride my frick'n brakes all the way down. Turns out that the winds is a pretty big factor on the descent. So I stayed with the plan and just sucked some wheels as we descended.
The first big descent basically rolls you in to the next significant climb which is about 500ft without the supper steep section of the first 1200ft climb. Again the packs sticks together. Then in to another longer windy descent and thatz the first lap.During the second lap we hit the climb with a bit more speed. Somebody yelled out that we should rotate on the front, so about 15 of us took turns haphazardly taking short pulls of the the windy climb. The tricky thing about the big climb is that there is constant wind and a constant grade for the first half. Then you reach a short plateau, where normally you would be able to rest and recover a bit, but not at Patterson. As you come around the corner to the flat section, you are immediately blasted with a fierce headwind. So the pack stays together here, then comes the super steep pitch where we started dropping people. I made up in the top 10 and maintained position on the descent. On the second hump, it was obvious people were hurting. Although my legs did hurt I was already feeling much better than the first lap.
1 lap profile
As we are coming around for the 3rd lap, I'm just waiting for the attacks to begin. I sit in, rest and get ready. The front of the pack accelerates and I go with it. We end up down to about 15 guys. We are trading pulls up the climb into the wind. Then Kurt, from wheelgirl.com, comes around the upward bound train and just rides away from us. I tried to jump but didn't have the juice in my legs. Two or 3 other guys jumped and went, it was a Davis guy, a godspeed guy and a pac state guy. Our pace has quickened and now I'm in survival mode, telling myself not to get dropped this god damn far into the race. I find a good pace and suckwheel like a mofo. My legs recover and I come around 6 or so people and re-insert myself in the paceline. I figure if I slow down it is to me benefit to make people have to go around me. I kept doing this as we headed up the hill. Then we hit the steep pitch and I'm struggling not to start rolling backwards. I'm standing on my pedals and humping the damn bike for all I'm worth. I make it to the top about 6th in our group.
We hit the descent and there's about 7-8 of us. I start talking to the guys around me and organizing a chase group. Turned out that Pacific State Bank had a guy in the break and was kinda just sitting in. I got really annoyed and so Taylor, Colavita, and I tried to initiate a break in our chase group. We managed to drop a few guys up the second climb and now it was like 5 of us in a group. You know it's really hard keeping people motivated in a chase group, people pull to hard or don't soft pedal when they pull of the front. It's interesting trying to work with people who aren't your teammates, but at the same time if you are nice and encouraging(I learned this from Ben) people will listen to your constructive criticism. Finally I got the group rotating pretty well and was whooping and hollering as we were really moving pretty good.
At one point I said, alright, let's catch the leaders and we upped the pace. I think we dropped 2 more guys and along the way to the finish we picked up 2 more guys. I told them to hop in, sit in and recover and then work with us. We are about 3 miles from the finish and there is slight little stupid insignificant little bump before you pass under H580 towards the finish. All of a sudden my legs are just not working any more and I'm standing on the pedals struggling to turn them over.
I watch the 6 guys in the chase group i frick'n organized creeping away from me. They hit a little descent and I'm hosed because I can catch back on. So after all that hardwork, I come in to the finish stretch and sprint across the line alone. Lame, lame, nitecourt in it's 5th season laaaaame! So I got 12th instead of 6th. I know I could have taken the guys in my group at the line had my legs not given out on me...whatever!
Cool thing is I've made quite a few allies this year. Next year, if they haven't already upgraded to the 3's, I'll have a good 4 guys to work with on top of my mousemates!
After the results were published I was amazed to see that 1/3 of the field did not finish the race....yea, Patterson was that frick'n hard!
We couldn't get to El Charro fast enough. I tried to enjoy my delicious chicken torta and not be distracted about the fact that the Donut Wheels was just across the street. Drove home, dropped the boys off, went home and passed out for 2hrs. Then time to get ready for the mountain bike race sunday!
Comments