I think the "Strongest Rider" award would have to go to Steggall!
Being that this is still my 1st year with the team, I wasn't sure how
to react when JS suggested that I be "The One" which is why I never
responded. Yes I have been getting stronger, but I figure I've still
got a ways to go before I'm at JS's level...if ever and I figured I'd
chalk up my first year to "helping the team" so I was both surprised
and elated by his suggestion. I just hoped that I'd be able to
deliver.
Thanks to Janice, and her mom, it only took us about an hour or so to
get there. I was able to get in a pretty decent warm up but the first
time up the hill was seemingly the hardest. JS pretty much covered the
details of the race as a whole. He, Jim, and Will were all strong
throughout and Lee showed up right at the very end to offer what he had
left in the tank. I think my favorite part of the whole race was taking
JS's wheel as he ramped it up on the descent on the final lap. The man
is absolutely fearless! It felt solid riding off the front with he and
Will as well. Robin was cool enough to sacrifice his race and forgo the
final lap to make sure that he was there to feed the rest of the team.
Darin is getting stronger every time I ride with him and Todd, it was
good to meet you brutha! We may not have had the results that we were
hoping for, but we sure looked good doing it! :0) And I had and
absolute "Kick A$" time racing with you guys. Can't wait to do it
again...just do me a favor and remind me to drink more!
~ J
Jason Snovel, 35+ 4/5 Spring Hill RR
John Steggall, 35+ 4/5, Spring HIll RR
A brief race report from the Spring "Powerhill" RR, 35+
4/5:
We were surprised to find so many DBC guys on the line
-- 7. A couple of us had been discussing strategy via
email but we hastily reaccessed this while waiting for
the race to start.
The plan, at least as I understood it, was to sit in
for the 1st lap, try to get one or two away during the
2nd lap, and if that didn't work, get everyone to the
front near the end, getting Jason S. or Will to the
line. This is pretty much what we did.
Three of us got dropped sometime in the first 1.5 laps
(Robin, Todd, and Darin). That left Jim, Jason, Lee,
Will, and me. We tried sending Jason off with one of
the Synergy guys but this guy's teammates chased this
down when it looked like a Berkeley BC guy might bridge
up (life in the 4/5s, I'm afraid). Soon after, we tried
a couple of surges to force a break but these were also
unsuccessful.
This left us with the end game. There were about 25
guys left out of the original 75. We all moved up close
to the front and drove things home in the last few km.
The last 500 meters or so feature a relatively easy
climb and then a steeper section, flattening near the
end. After the first riser, our positioning seemed like
it was going to pay off -- we had 4 or 5 guys in the
top 10, with a couple of us sitting around position 4
and 5.
Unfortunately, we all ran out of gas on the steeper
section and about 10 guys went cruising around us in
the final 200 m. Our best finisher was Jason S. at
around 12th.
Lessons learned?
If possible, at least one or two guys need to stay
protected in the last 5K or so. We all got caught up in
the excitement in the last half lap. Everyone did some
big pulls and burnt too many matches. The guys who were
sitting in behind us, ended up eating our lunch. On the
positive side, we're starting do get more sophisticated
in our strategy and more confident in our ability to
pull things off.
The sad thing is that the best strategy in many of the
4/5s races is to simply survive to the end doing as
little work as possible, saving everything for the
final few hundred meters. Breaks rarely work so it's
better not to waste any energy trying to create them or
chase them down.
-js
Janice Pfeiff, Spring Hill
Two months off the bike
Reg'd for race Friday night
Dropped IMMEDIATELY
Wanted to quit-didn't
Rode as hard as I could
Dropped a chain (not used to compact cranks)
Put chain back on
Still wanted to quit-didn't
Almost puked on last climb to the finish
Placed 2nd to last
Totally happy
Didn't quit
Read an article tonight on "How Not To Get Dropped"
Who wants to carpool to Albany Crit ( :
Mike Pugh, Spring Hill, 35+ 1/2/3
Spring Hill Road Race – Petaluma Ca 35+123
Took us about 1:15 to get here from Davis, however parking is a walk from registration so allow plenty of time and pay attention to the E. Washington st exit off of 101.
A feed is required especially for the 66 or 88 mile races. The hills are rolling but they will zap your strength, more on this later. Robin Rolle’s son Robin was a welcome sight the first couple of laps as he had a bottle for me every time at the feed zone. Nice job Robin and "Thank You" just doesn’t say enough.
The first lap of our race was fairly benign. Most attacks were half hearted and at one point I thought maybe the group behind us (elite 3) would catch us. With about 5 miles to go of the 22 mile first lap a pair shot off on the smooth tailwind section heading back to the start. With in 5 miles they had about 1 min on the main group. On the next lap another 2 managed to sneak off and eventually joined the other two. These four maintained a gap of appx 1 to 1 ½ minutes for the remainder of the second lap.
With two laps (44miles) to go we rolled through the feed zone. Chad D gave me a hand up at this point from a broken musset bag, an almost disastrous feed as Rob Anderson (World Champion Mountain Biker) attacked through the feed zone. Chad handed me the bag reminiscent of a football hand off behind the line of scrimmage in order to keep all its contents together. The jolt nearly knocked me off my bike and I was fortunate enough to see the strap of the bag raping around the speed sensor on my fork, while one of the bottles from the bag cascaded down the road. I managed to untangle the strap, stow the other bottle, and get what amounted to a wet cotton mess and some energy bars into my jersey.
Rob Anderson was long gone as I made my way up the climb and through an obliterated field, this took a lot of effort. At the crest there were 5 of us. With Rob Anderson about 250 yards ahead and the lead 4 not too far in front of him. Within 3 miles he had bridged the gap, and we were 5 chasing 5 with a shattered field in our wake. We spent the next 22 miles slowly trying to real in the 5 in front of us without shattering our own group. At about 10 miles after the chaotic feed I decided to extract the energy bars from what was left of the musset bag at the base of a shallow climb-big mistake. As I pulled out the bag it once again came apart and became a two handed operation as the strap dangled dangerously close to my front wheel. At that moment for what ever reason the rider on the end of our chase group decided he either couldn’t climb anymore or needed to slow and my safe 10 yard gap for food management quickly closed to one yard, you get the picture. I swerved and pulled my left foot out to brace for the worst. Luckily I missed him with about 10 mph of over take but swerved at such an angle that I dabbed my left foot and ran my knee into my bar end. I stayed up right to my amazement and continued on, that would be the last time I dealt with the musset bag that day. I wiped my bloody knee with what was left of my knee and dropped it for the corner guards.
Before the end of lap three of four, we lost two more riders in our chase group. The three of us continued on and caught the lead five shortly after the last feed (Thank you Chad and Stephen J). On the next major climb we were together. Rob Anderson attacked again and I was the only one to respond. I could feel my right leg starting to cramp as I stayed with him, tired from what was just the beginning of a long day I focused on my left leg to give my right a rest. We separated from the other 3 and maintained a gentlemanly pace on the back side of the course. We were eventually caught by one strong chaser who was nearly spent when he caught us. We continued on trading pace for the next 13 or so miles.
Turning onto the road with about 3K to go it was obvious to me that the chaser who caught us would be no threat to me or Rob in the sprint, in fact with 1K to go he said ”you guys got it”. I had considered attacking before then but it was a slow, down hill into the finishing climb and what if I cramped again! Rob and I made our way up the hill eyeing each other. 1K to go-no attack, 500 meters to go, still eyeing with a descent pace up the hill but nothing to tough. 300 meters to go-nothing from Rob. Just inside 300 meters I went hard and inside around the final bend and pulled about a bike length ahead, where is that finish line? At the crest of the hill I maintained a lead but I could feel the cramps coming with 175 meters to go, he drew even and both my legs were done, and locking up. It was all I could do to cross the line up right, with the winner about 20 meters ahead.
Lessons learned: Feeds are critical, all said and done I think I went through 7 bottles for 4hrs 7mins of racing. 8 would have been better, cytomax in all of them ( I had one bottle of water) this may have helped the cramps. The jump required after the musset bag incident to catch the front of the shattering field may have cost me in the end, it was a long hard effort.Preparation: Get in at least one long HARD ride every other week to simulate the race conditions and the onset of cramping legs. Use thermolite, pedalite or whatever to fight the cramps My avg heart rate for 4 hours was 138, my Max was 199. I spent 3 min total above 180bpm.
Other races with DBC racers: Elite 3, Andreas Freund - 1st, Pro,1,2, Tyler Kuphaldt - 1st
Either I need to learn to sprint with cramps or get a german last name!
Mike Pugh