Pilarcitos #3 at Sierra Point - 11/15/08

Bob Roll is one of my favorite Tour day France (France not Frahnce) announcers. Some of the expressions he uses are perfect descriptions of how a cyclist feels. And most of us being cyclists, we can relate. Well, Bobke's expression for me in today's race would've been, "He went deep into the pain cave... and barely made it back out." That was a perfect description of today's race. And this was confirmed as just about everyone I ran into said that I looked terrible at the end of the race. Thanks, love you too... :)

(photo credit - Steve Woo)
I've been sick for the last week to ten days (and still not fully over it). So I probably had no business even racing today. But the cross bug has bit me hard, like a drug, and I need to feed the habit. So I loaded up my frankenMoots and headed to a familiar venue - Sierra Pt - the location of the Track Fights a few months back. The weather of course was spectacular today - actually wouldn't have minded it to be a bit cooler. Low 80's at race time. So much for the muddy cross races fought out in the bitter cold. This was a hot and dusty race.

I registered and slipped onto the course after the 3pm race. It was a bumpy course, but pretty darn fast with only one forced dismount. Couple of steep power ups but all rideable (except when for some fit roadies with no skills were in front of you and lost their balance you dumba$$es). My frankenMoots would be what I thought was a perfect bike for the race - 700c wheels with high pressure, Fox F80X fork in front (no bob), and the excellent Moots YBB rear end with just over an inch of travel. The only thing that concerned me was that I was using my aero road bike wheels with 16 and 20 spokes (front/rear). Oh and riser bars - jeeze, I felt so at home on those riser bars... :)

So at the start it is a fairly wide paved stretch of parking lot and then a bunny hop over a curb onto the dirt. I settled in a few bikes behind Schlachter and was actually feeling good with the pace. But the first lap is always the easiest since things are sorting out, and there is some conga line action going on. Well, on the first little power up, an aforementioned dumba$$ has to dismount and I try to go around him. But I lost my balance as I was way off the good line and that would be the last I saw of Scott. I mean I saw him on the course as it crisscrossed a bunch, but never got to within the few bike lengths to him. Probably wouldn't have anyhow.

For the rest of the race, I fought as hard as I could. But most of the time it seemed like I was getting passed. At one point I was behind a guy who had a front flat and could barely keep up with him. Sheesh. I'd look back at the course where it crisscrossed and didn't see many people behind me. But the leaders hadn't lapped me yet so I still had motivation to push on. Then I hear the bell lap and think cool, I can mash it for one last lap. I probably did my fastest lap of the day and as I neared the finish line I see the lap card person holding up a "1" and pointing at me. I had crossed the line with another guy and he pulled off. I was confused and then a bunch of the Open B's hopped on the course to warm up. I could've sworn I was done, but I decided I better keep going. So I had to work a little harder to pass the B warmer uppers and managed to finish one last lap, thankfully without a sprint finish. Good thing I did apparently. Maybe that was Lorri Lee Lown doing some funny bidness while officiating... I'll teach that Gin... muwahahahahaa!!!

So I'm not sure what the hell happened there, but I was just glad it was over. After being told I looked like death warmed over by my teammates, I went back to my car thinking that if I puke, I would like to do it in private. But that never happened, but man, was I toast. I drank a ton of water, which was about the only thing safe at the time. Sat down because standing up seemed like too much work. Finally after about 15-20 minutes I started to feel somewhat normal again. People said I looked better too. Still very tired though.

My finish wasn't stellar, but I did manage to finish on the lead lap - just barely - I was the second to last guy of the non-lapped guys. 48th place out of 59, not including the DNFers. So actually considering everything going into this race, I was happy to have finished on the lead lap - that was my goal. Schlachter took a very respectable 30th, which included riding a couple of laps with a loose handlebar and taking a pit stop to fix it. I think he was about 2 minutes in front of me. I finished just over 5 minutes behind the leaders.

Thanks to all that were there supporting us - Matt Walters for the occasional feed and his significant other, Kathleen and sons, Allan and Roz, Paul and Jenny, and the other people I knew out there cheering me on (the Meeces and Altezza40 folks). It is amazing how that does keep you pushing forward despite wanting to quit or mysteriously have a mechanical...

So right as I was getting ready to leave, the Open B race started. I said, "Hey Matt Leonard got his first call up to the start line - let's go heckle him!" So we got over to the fence and were positioned about 30 yards down from the start. And they're off! And right in front of us, one guy eats it big time - the ensuing pile up was nasty - I turned away at one point because I didn't want to see the carnage. The sound was enough. Ugly. And guess who got caught up in the crash? Leonard. He wasn't hurt, but his bike became unrideable - the brake boss on his fork was bent and the brake was pushed into his wheel. What a bummer. He was clearly disappointed. We asked him if he wanted another bike. And he said yes. So there was my bike, right there with the same fantastic Crank Bros. Eggbeater pedals, which is what he uses too. I handed him my bike and off he went. He was dead last by a lot but managed to finish pretty strongly. He caught a lot of people but that crash set him really far back in a fast field. Not sure where he finished, but might have cracked the top half. Way to fight back Matt! And the frankenMoots held up nicely under him too. Matt Walters raced the Open B's and did well - he got caught near the end by the lead guys, but nothing wrong with that. Those guys are freakin' fast. Way to suffer with the fast boys Matt!

Full results should be published probably tomorrow. Super fun event - watching the folks race under the lights was cool. Reminded me of the days when we tried to pull that off at Club Moto with the Dirt Crits back in the late 90's. We were so far ahead of our time... :)

Now a nice break from racing - after racing 9 weeks in a row, I'm looking forward to the Turkey Day holiday and some R&R. The body can use a break.

Thanks for reading!

Mike

******************* Race Report by Matt Walters *******************

Ah nice report Mike.

I got there a couple of laps into Mike and Scotts race. I must say it was pretty cool to see all the racers on that tight course, the dust being kicked up and the setting sun made for quite the pic. The course looked damm fast and pretty rough.

(photo credit - Steve Woo)
I lined up for the B's hoping that my race would last more than 5 mins last time, knowing that half way through i would love a mechanical. I managed to aviod, just, the big pile up at the start and settled into the suffering. It basically went something like this sprint corner, sprint, straight, corner, sprint take air out of the bowel, corner, sprint. All in all quite good fun. About half-way though some guy passes me complaining about bloody mountain bikers - and that was the last i saw of Leonard! After that i just kept plugging away, getting lapped towards the end - thank god cause i was dying.

I got to say that i had forgotten how much i love racing cross, definately gonna be doing a fair bit more. Now all I need to do is some training and get fit, or continue to suffer at the arse end of the B's.

Matt

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Livermore CX 11-08-08

Dear Training Diary,

I thought I would take this time to log in my pre-race dinner from the night before to help me better identify on how to improve my results. Here is was my menu:

2/3 of the fried calamari appetizer
1 full slab of baby back ribs
3/4 of the baked sweet potato smothered with butter, brown sugar, and chives
3/4 of the corn bread muffin with just a little butter
3 pieces of roasted veggies to help break things up a bit
Drink - Armold Palmer

Hmm... let me think, probably not the best pre-race meal - but who needs that carbo loading thing anyhow? I'm doing the low carb thing. Claim Jumper rules!


So the next day arrives and well, I'm not hungry at all. Feeling a little heavy, a little tired. Sinuses clogged a bit too. Hmm... maybe just show up and cheer on the teammates. Give the body a break after subjecting it to constant stressing. Good idea.

But the competitiveness in me decides to race anyhow. Allan Sherlock was there, as was Bob Lofland. Jeff Hane even made it out here and wore the old TWW kit (well, at least for his warm up). Scott Seery showed up as well and was our feed boy - thanks! So it was a good turnout and I'm glad I decided to race - after warming up some I felt okay. Thanks Roz also for the feeds and for snapping some photos!

So it is crowded at the start and the Master A's were given a minute head start. Then the mass of B's, B35's, B45's, and B55's followed. Big crowd, good turnout for this category. My goal was to try to stay on the lead lap, to not get lapped by the Master A's again. And once again, I was denied. Freakin' Mark Howland, yes, the guy who won some sort of cyclocross championship back in the 90's and essentially eliminated mountain bikes from cyclocross championships because he crushed everyone while bunnyhopping everything was slumming in the Master A's. He caught me with about 30 seconds left and I couldn't catch him. But that was as deep in the race as I've gone before getting lapped. If I had only not eaten the corn bread muffin... I congratulated him on his finish and then said, "you saw that I wasn't in your group, couldn't you have slowed down right before the finish?"

Overall despite sabotaging myself by being a glutton the night before, I felt pretty good out there (well, as good as you can in a CX race). Kept Allan somewhat close, he probably was about 1.5 minutes ahead of me at various points late in the race - but he stayed on the lead lap so he did well (despite giving himself a tattoo that strangely looked like a gate post). Course was bumpy but tacky and fast. My frankenbike woulda actually been pretty sweet on this course. The rodeo layout is very cool - they added some more turns and dismounts from the previous race I did there. Good stuff!




So I hung out waiting for the results and was disappointed to see an 11/12 finish. Guess the pre-race meal wasn't a great idea. I'll have to try something else next weekend. Still not DFL, but close. Allan took 8/12 in the same category. So the pace was pretty brisk today. Mr. Lofland was 10/11 in the 45B's.

TWW is still in the infancy of the whole cross scene. But we're building nicely off of this and are already looking forward to the '09 season (although this season is far from over).

Thanks for reading!

Mike

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Pilarcitos #2 at Candlestick Point - 11/02/08

Well the weather leading up to the race was quite nasty to say the least. Lots of rain the two days before the big race. I packed tons of clothing, two towels, a tarp, a pump sprayer full of water to hose me off with, and plastic bags to put the muddy clothes in. I was ready.

As it turns out, didn't need any of that extra stuff - the weather conditions turned to high 60's and blue skies, and since we were the last race of the day, much of the course had dried out - there were two spots where you got a little splatter, but hardly any really. Fun course, definitely a power course. Pretty bumpy too.


So lots of familiar faces there, including Matt Walters trying out his first CX race of the year, Matt Leonard, Jeff Hane, Scott Schlachter, and myself. We all were racing the open B category. Big category with some fast muthas. I saw several guys riding bikes with wheelsets that cost more than my complete bike. Clearly they took cross pretty darn seriously.
We didn't get a chance to pre-ride the course but figured with that large of a group, that you would get a chance to test out the course on the first lap anyhow. Myself, Matt, and Scott were near the back so we didn't get a good start - that was okay with me, as I didn't need to get caught up in the melee at the beginning and overdo it which I seem to sometimes do.

I was cruising with Schlachter, feeling pretty good (much better than last week). We were trailing Matt, basically following him. We hit the kinda sorta run-up (only on the first lap due to all the riders). At the top I see Matt W. off to the side fidgeting with his bike - he cobbled it together the day before and well, let's just say that's not recommended. That would pretty much be the end of his day.

I kept up with Scott for awhile, but then lost sight of him probably at the 30 minute mark. I was cruising with Paule of Roaring Mouse for a bit too - he was showing me the good lines - thanks! But then eventually he would pull away as well (he finished 45 seconds in front of me). I think I raced as fast as I could, pretty consistent. But the open B category is probably more than my training can keep up with. At about the 39 minute mark, one of those guys with the $1,000+ wheelset came flying by - he was the race leader. I told him good job and thank you - my race was shortened by a lap! I had prepared in my mind that I was going to get lapped so I wasn't disappointed. Actually pretty happy that it took as long as it did.

Once again, I didn't pay attention to the lap signs, and didn't sprint at the end. I got passed right at the line by one more guy in the lead group - so five guys lapped me. Dude was flying.

So our results weren't spectactular, but of note was that Schlachter beat Hane - that'll teach him to fly some other colors (have to give Jeff some credit - he did race the A's earlier but did a DNF). I wasn't able to catch him but didn't finish that far behind him. The best though was seeing the look on Scott's face when he saw me already finished - "you beat me?!" I said, "yep". He clearly was suffering and a bit delirious - so I let it go for a little longer but then told him the truth. He was relieved.

Results:

52/85 Scott Schlachter
74/85 Mike Gin (avg. HR 180, max 188)
DNF Matt Walters

Hane was in the mid 60's (can't remember exactly), Matt Leonard was I think 25th - nicely done. It was good seeing Jon Heim there too - thanks for all the heckling - nice to hear a familiar voice while suffering (Shaney and Matt W's wife too - thanks for the cheering). Thanks Matt W. for the feeds - guess your DNF did serve the team well in some way... :)

Mike

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