Justin Hall 35+ 5

Wente Vinyards RR
Category 5 Masters 35+
Justin Hall
Finishing position: 11/50
Teammates: Leon Baskekas, Joe Kovacs, Joaquin Feliciano, and one other who I don't recall (sorry)
Course description: As most of you know the race starts with an approximately 4 mile roll out till the first climb which is about 4 miles long but the first pitch of about 1 mile is pretty steep...really fun downhill section for a couple of miles with gentle rollers and flats turning into the wind back toward the staging area and back around to the climb. We did 3 laps.

The weather forecasts said it was going to be a warm day - but it ended up being downright hot. When Leon got to my at ~8:45a house it was actually rather windy and I found myself happy I wasn't on the wheelworks ride but concerned that if it was this windy in Davis how bad would it be in areas where they actually build windmills??? Fortunately the wind ended up being light but that also served to make a warm day actually a hot day!!! Because I cramped at Copperopolis, I started hydrating on Friday and really focused on staying hydrated throughout the day. As Karl mentioned in his report, we were surprised to find there would be no neutral water so we planned to have Mike and Lee's SO's give us bottles every lap - huge thanks go out to those two gals for their help!!!!

The first lap our group of 50 frag'ed to about 30 or so on the first climb, Leon and I stayed with the main pack but we lost the balance of our DBC team - I was climbing at or beyond threshold so I knew the climbs on the next couple laps it would be hard to stay with the group. I started the descent toward the back but worked my way up through the field just using my momentum and rode the balance of that lap at the front but not doing a bit of work. Nobody really wanted to lead and we basically softpedaled the lap allowing 4 other riders dropped on the climb to TT back on. Consumed one bottle and one gel.

The second lap our group shelled even more. Leon put forth a hell of an effort to stay on the back of the main group of about 15-20 riders but I couldn't hang on. I lost probably about 30 yards between the bottom of the hill and start finish and on the balance of the climb from the overpass to the top I lost another 50 or so yards as I was trying to tt back on to the group who was working together. I figured I could catch back on the decent, so I really pressed hard not resting at all and caught back on at the bottom left hander. At this point I was fried and needed to recover, whereas the rest of the group was strong having rested on the descent, so at a couple points on the rollers and the short stinger hill I fell a few yards off but was able to stay with the group. After a couple miles I got my legs back but started cramping again in my right calf. Consumed one bottle, one gel, and dropped my granola bar while opening it L .

The climb on the third lap was very painful. I was determined to not get dropped as I noticed the wind was picking up on the backside and I didn't want to solo TT in. It took everything I had to stay with Leon, and he was giving it everything he had to stay with the group, but we couldn't hang with them and the main group was down to 10, with the balance of the group really spread out. We were at the front of the remaining very fragmented group and worked together to stay ahead of the rest of the field trying to catch back on to the main group. We TT'ed together the rest of the way in never giving up hoping to catch anyone who fell off the back. At the start of the final pitch we saw a Synergy rider who we recognized - I had nothing left but Leon pressed and got the guy at the sprint to finish 9th!! I basically paced at 300w up the hill to finish 11th.

Key learnings: At Copperopolis I made the conscious decision to stay at threshold (300w) on the climb, let the group go, and try to catch back on rather than risk blowing up. At Wente I decided to go well into the red zone (400-450w) given the climbs were shorter in an effort to stay with the group - this seemed to work better although on races with longer sustained climbs such as Patterson Pass I will probably still get dropped till I shed more weight. I am still around 180lbs which seems too heavy to be any sort of a decent climber but I am having difficulty getting below this weight. Here is my power data, anyone with any insights or suggestions please let me know:

Duration: 2:28:57 (2:31:29)
Work: 1816 kJ
TSS: 218.6 (intensity factor 0.938)
Norm Power: 263
VI: 1.29
Distance: 47.736 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 882 203 watts
Heart rate: 0 203 181 bpm
Cadence: 29 178 89 rpm
Speed: 0 45.8 19.2 mph
Pace 1:22 0:00 3:07 min/mi
Overall I am very happy with this result as the course doesn't really favor my strengths (if I have any), and work/family limited my training since Copperopolis. Thanks for being a great teammate Leon, it was a lot of fun. Good job seeing all the other DBC'ers out there, I think we had some good team results.
Justin