The
weather was nice and warm for the race and they started us about
20 minutes later than scheduled. The start out each category
on there own (except pro/1/2 all race together) and each is
spaced out 5 minutes. I staged at the front line and listened
to the instructions. The official asked if anyone had done this
race before, and one person spoke up that had done the race.
Luckily he was right next to me and he was the one to lead us
out through the neutral area. Since I forgot to put on my wheel
magnet I did not have any idea of what the speed was of the
race. I sit up near the front during the first 10 miles chatting
with the guy next to me. There is one guy in front of me pulling,
so I just take it easy and relax. The guy next to me is the
one that has raced this race before and lets me know that I
need to be in the top 10 after going over Hwy 20, because that
is where the road turns ugly. About 3 miles before Hwy 20 the
guys in the front pull off and it is the two of us pulling.
Looking back it is two wide all the way back, so we slow up
the pace a bit. We cross Hwy 20 and boy does the road get nasty.
Potholes that I never new existed on roads where all over the
place. No reason to call them out to other (unless they were
really big), I needed my hands on my handlebars to keep the
bike straight. The road just kind of gets worse, parts of the
road do not have asphalt and are just dirt and gravel for 5-50
meters. The terrain begins to go from flat to rollers. One guy
launches an attack and I just keep pace, there is still a good
climb to come and another 40 miles to race. Five or so guys
come to the front to chase him and Mr. Experienced and I try
to convince them to slow up the pace and let him hang out there
for awhile. They slow up a bit, but the pace is still brisk
since someone is off the front. We get to the base of the climb
and the roads get a bit better, I am sitting in the top 10 and
climbing without any major problems. The solo rider that was
off the front is now coming back and we are climbing at a decent
pace. About a quarter of the way up the climb two guys attack
and four follow. I did not feel great and let them go and stayed
with the other 10 or so riders I was with. About half way up
the climb 6 guys go and this is where it is fairly flat so I
follow and stay with them. As the climb continues we get strung
out and I am riding at the back of the 6 riders. I look back
and I can only see one rider coming up behind me at about 20".
We get to the top of the climb and I take a good drink of water
and begin my descent. I could see one of the guys ahead of me
by about 15" and another rider not to much further up from
him. I take it easy in the first 100m of the descent since it
has potholes and bumps and gravel all over the place. I then
realize that I need to just suck it up and go. I start pedaling
and braking less picking good lines into the turns trying to
avoid anything major. About half way down the descent the road
is so bad that my water bottle on my seat tube pops up and flies
out. Luckily I noticed it and was able to catch it while trying
to keep the bike upright. After about 200m with just one hand
on the bars I get the bottle back into the cage and continue
my pursuit. I catch the guy ahead of me about 3/4 of the way
down and continue my pursuit of the next guy. At the bottom
I just continue to push my biggest gear to catch on to the next
guy. I catch up to him after about 1k or so and let him know
someone is behind me and we should slow up so he can join us
(3 is better than 2). The three of us work together and catch
another guy, Mr. Experience. Now there is four of us and we
push a good pace (45kph+) looking for the others up ahead. I
try to down a gel, but I just felt sick. I finally get it down
and wash it the flavor away with some water. I am still not
feeling, good, but I should be in a few minutes. We continue
our fast pace and pass a couple members from the higher up categories
that started before us. At about halfway we pick up one more
guy and my legs are really hurting. I take some shorter pulls
trying to relax a bit, but I did not want to just sit on. Others
where obviously hurting too as we would hit rollers, we would
slow up quite a bit. We come to another climb, which is about
1/3 of what the first (main) one was and I am in the back just
hanging onto a guys wheel. He drop kicks me and almost sends
me over. I save it and get back on his wheel. About 3/4 of the
way up I go around him and let him catch back on my wheel. He
did not have the power needed to do so, so I continued up to
catch the other two guys. At the top I see the guys down the
hill and try to catch them. I start going and shift into the
big ring and down the cassette. One problem though, my chain
falls off the cassette and gets stuck between the cassette and
the dropouts. Not a major problem, except it freezes up my cranks
and I cannot move them. The descent is not steep enough to just
tuck, you have to pedal and that slowed me up a lot. The guy
I climbed with came flying by me as I wrestled with my cranks
and shifter to get the chain back on. About halfway down the
descent I get the chain to move onto the 12T and I shift down
one more to the 13T to prevent any other problems. I pass the
guy I climbed with and caught up to the group I was with before
the climb. The pace slowed up after the descent since I bet
some of those guys pushed harder than they should have. I pull
through and keep the same pace, even though we are going over
rollers. I go and pull off and no one comes through on my right.
I look back and I have created a gap of about 20". Not
sure what happened, but I just sat up and waited for them. Still
20+ miles left in the race and I am not strong enough to solo
the rest of the way. The group catches up and most of the guys
look kind tired, but I am starting to feel better. We get back
to working all together again and ride about 10 miles before
we catch another guy from our category. After a few minutes
I ask Mr. Experienced how much further and he flashes 7 miles
at me. I am starting to feel week again and down another gel,
but without any problems this time. My feet really hurt from
the rough roads and my legs are tired, along with my body. Up
the road our group see two guys riding and we hope it is part
of our category. I noticed that one of the guys was wearing
a green jersey and a red/white/blue Giro helmet. I know that
guy, it is Chris (Cat 4), the President of the CSUS cycling
club. I mention to the guys that those two are 4s and not to
worry. They told me I needed to give my friend a hard time for
catching him since he started 5 minutes before. I raz him a
bit and feel a bit more zip in my legs now. A few miles go by
and Chris is just hanging out behind our group, we are only
cruising at 35kph right now, so it is not to fast. He rolls
up next to me and asks how I feel and tells me what happened
in his race. He had some bad luck with getting two flats during
the race. I tell him I hurt all over and I am just happy to
be in a group. We keep riding and Chris falls off a bit behind
our group with about 3 miles to go. The pace slows up and everyone
starts looking around at each other. The sprint is starting
to come up and people are getting into position. I am sitting
second wheel on the right, but pretty much boxed in since we
are riding on the right side of the road. We hit the 1km to
go sign and everyone is looking around. We start to slowly move
to the left and now there is a spot for me to move up to the
front if I want. I see the opportunity and take it. I shift
up and stand up and go for it. 500m to go and I look back and
see a nice gap forming, so I keep at it. I see the 100m to go
sign and I am still there, but I two guys have come up and are
on my wheel. No way I can win leading someone out after that
effort, so I give up and the two go around me. 50m to go and
I stand up and start sprinting with the other guys right behind
me. I gave it all I had and managed to hold them off.
Looking back I think I should have held the wheel in front of
me for longer, but I did not feel I could out sprint the two
big guys in our group (Mr. Experience and the other one that
caught me). I need to climb with the top guys for a bit longer
and try to stay up with them next time. We never caught that
group of ~10 guys and I should have made a stronger effort to
stay with them when the attacks came. Inexperience is all I
can say. Also climbing in a 39/21 was not the best idea, next
RR I will have my 12-23 on.