Grasshopper race report

My morning started out bright and early with a trip on BART to Berkeley to meet up with Blake Von Knopka and Morgan Fletcher. We ended up waiting awhile for an 18 year old Berkeley freshman, and glad we did. The kid had no other means to get to the race, and he appears to be a stud. So its good we were able to get him out there. Anyway, we hit the road around 8 or so and were in Occidental by about 9:30. Morgan kept asking every one about tire pressure, and the more people he asked, the more we realized we were running way too low of a pressure. He went up to 70 psi, and I went up to 55. Oh yeah, we were all on cross bikes.

We went and registered where I ran in to many familiar faces; Paule from Roaring Mouse, Geoff Wilcox from Altezza 40, Jeremy Kimmel and John Blackwell of Sexual Camel, Murphy Mack of Gestalt/Sheila Moon, Dayton Crites from SF Urban Riders, etc. Oh and there was some yahoo in a full blow Maxxis kit with a helmet cam who thought he was all bad ass. Geoff Kabush or something, whatever ;-) Anyway, we roll out for a medium tempo 7 mile or so spin and head towards the first fire road. It was one of the most amazing cycling experiences I¢ve been a part of. I don¢t care for road riding much, but to see 100 people in front of me, and maybe another 100 people behind me, tightly bunched up four wide zooming down the road, well that was a sight to see.

We hit a rather steep dirt road and everyone sort of chugged along. It was great, no assholes, just a really polite group out to enjoy the ride. Once we were done climbing and it got rolly, I was sort of on my own with only a few people around whom I¢d never met. After we got back on pavement, Geoff Wilcox caught up to me and was my guide for much of the day. Neither of us knew where we were going, but he had road tires and I was on 35c and 32c cross tires front and rear, respectively. So I drafted him on the paved stuff for 90% of the time. He is somewhat more fit than I am, and at points it was all I could do to hold on to his wheel. But we had a great time. I was able to heckle John Blackwell many times, telling him not to make the Camels look bad and trading rude comments. For about 10 miles of pavement, Geoff and I ended up leading a train of about 8 people. Luckily, a girl in the group lived in the area and would yell at us when we were supposed to turn. But on Highway 116, Geoff ended up flatting and I stopped to keep him company. We let maybe 15-20 people go by, including Yuri Hauswald (Marin/Bike Monkey) who had a loud blowout about 3 miles in to the race. And then like the tortoise and the hair, here comes Blackwell.

We ended up catching John and passing him, but he was paying more attention and made a scheduled turn and Geoff and I had to do a little u-turn and catch back up. The three of us mellowed out and started what we had been told was the long climb out. It was still paved, but a really beat up road which was more rolly than uphill. But our mellow pace didn¢t last long. Blake was leading a train of about 6 people and Geoff asked if I wanted to jump on. So off we went, hammering again, with about 10 miles to the finish. I almost got dropped a few times, but managed to hold on. Once we hit dirt and started climbing, I said good bye for the afternoon and dropped in to my granny gear (36-25) and began the long climb home. Normally it would have been no problem. But coming out of paternity leave, and crushing myself for 2.5 hours trying to keep up with Geoff, I was spent. I went from laughing and having a good time to realizing I may not make it out without some long rests. It was a true test of will.

I ended up taking a several minute break in the middle of the steepest section and watched a few people go by. Back on my bike, barely turning over my pedals, I slogged on. I came to the last gate and could barely get myself over the 2 ft tall railing. I rested for a minute and Paule rolls up on his single speed cross bike. What an f¢ing animal. I watched him pedal away and started about a one mile gradual paved climb to the finishing decent. Dayton came up behind me and we rolled out together. I could barely talk and thought I was going to puke, rolling at about 5 mph in my granny gear. Once it started downhill, we knew we were done and just chatted and enjoyed the swooping decent.

So, 50ish miles of mixed terrain in ~3.5 hours with perfect riding weather. Jeremy crushed it, finishing 15 minutes behind the leaders in about 2.75 hours. And Geoff ended up putting 10 minutes on me during the climb. Its something I¢ll definitely do again, but with skinnier tires and more pressure. Also, I brought way too much crap. About 16oz too much water, a pb&j sandwich and clif bar which I didn¢t eat (probably should have eaten the pb&j), and two spare tubes. I did eat all of my Clif Shot Bloks which were great. Also, I¢d probably swap my 36 little ring for a 34 and maybe got a 27 in the back rather than a 25 to have just a little easier gear on some of those climbs. None of the climbs really required a 34-27, but it would have been nicer to have at the end. Oh well, lessons learned.

Matt Leonard

134 out of ~190 3:39