Jim Kuphaldt, Wente, 45+ 4/5

Wente Vinyards Road Race 45+ cat 4,5

Warmed up and went to the line with Nelson F. and Darin S. One other
DBC rider was at the line who I had not met that I'm told was Hal Slone.
Went out with my usual plan, ride towards the front to get in any break
that develops. I might rethink that strategy after this race. This
turned out to be the toughest ride I have ever been on. Did not realize
I could get my heart rate so close to my maximum for that long and still
keep going.

We rolled out easy as expected before the climb with Hal Setting much of
the early tempo. I was not expecting the first trip up the climb to be
very hard, but I went above threshold the first time up the steep part
for a bit then settled back in towards the top.

I was just following wheels at the front letting others set the pace.
Ended up being 4-5 of us off the front at the top but we were caught
somewhere on the flats by a large group of riders including Nelson and
Darin.

We set a pretty good tempo with some guy who wasn't even in our race
driving the group on the whole flat stretch. The second time up the
steep section I was within 8 beats of my max and was still loosing
ground to the leaders. We were all strung out up that part of the climb
and I continued well above threshold the rest of the way up the climb as
I got back in with a group of 9 or so riders with two still up the road.
Nearly crashed on the long descent at the hairpin left when I was
rotating past the rider in front and he cut me off on the apex forcing
me onto the bot dots at 40+ mph. the bike jumped about 3ft outside and I
barely saved it almost going off the road. As I accelerated back onto
his wheel I had a few choice words for him, but as I look back on it,
probably was not the best time to rotate through.

As we rolled through the flats we got a pretty good pace line going
finally after many failed attempts on the gradual decent. We caught the
other two riders just before the start line area, now there were 11 of
us as we headed into the 3rd climb. I knew we had some serious climbers
in our group when a 4 man break from the Pro race came by right after
the underpass at the base of the gradual climb, and they only put about
150m on us by the finish line with one to go. By the feed zone we were
all strung out again with 8 in front and 2 behind. Once again I was
redlining as I did on the steep stuff every lap. I began picking off
guys one by one on the more gradual climb after the line. At the top
there was a group of 4 still ahead about 70 m as the main group of the
pros went by. My son Taylor asked me if I was leading and I pointed to
the group ahead as they breezed by me. The last of the string of about
35 Pros went by me right at the top and I stayed about 20m behind all
the way to the bottom, where I caught the 4 leaders of my race. I
struggled to hang on in the small climbs but figured at this point I was
going for top 5 because I could not see anyone behind us.

I burned so much energy to get back on that I was just sitting on the
back on the descent. We didn't form a pace line until just before that
first right turn, and I had recovered enough to help out by that time.
The pace line was pretty erratic which made it difficult to find my
rhythm. These guys kicked my a@# up the climb every lap so I figured I
was riding for 5th when much to my surprise a group of 4 riders caught
us right after the underpass. Now there was 9 and I was starting to
cramp bonk and otherwise feel like s#@%. Once we hit that dreaded steep
section three guys attacked and I was determined to go with them, which
I did for about 150m, until I ceased up and began dropping back like a
rock. The whole group passed me before the feed zone and I made a feeble
attempt to catch the last couple in the group but had to settle for a
distant 9th. No a painful cramping, wheezing, most I have ever hurt on a
bike, 9th. Nelson F. rolled in a very respectable 19th and Darin was
about 40th. I didn't see Hal come in so I'm not sure what happened to
him.

Lessons learned. Eat right before the race and bring gels food or at
least sport drink for a road race. Water alone does not cut it. Don't
pass on a descending corner. Be patient, don't chase all the early
breaks down. Work with the big group for a while on a tough course like
Wente. I can't climb with the big dogs on the steep sections. Maybe that
guy at Sea Otter wasn't superman on the steep section last week. Or did
I just race against 8 more supermen.

Still it was rewarding to push my body to the limit time and time again.
Was a very satisfying to know I could not have pushed myself any harder.
I sure can learn to ride a lot smarter though. Next up for me is
Berkeley Hills. Sounds like more of the same. See you there!

Jim Kuphaldt

Derek Byrne, Wente 35+ 4

Hey guys,

Lee and Tom and a couple of guys asked how I am doing, so here is my "fall" report. To call it a crash would be far too grandiose. Basically got dropped on the first climb of the first lap. On the descent I hooked up with Lee and a few other guys. Our numbers fluctuated until we were down to 4 of us on the last lap. Shortly before the uphill, 90 degree, right hander before the descent, Lee kindly held up for me with the other 2 guys. I repayed that kindness by catching up with them, but finding myself quickly coming up on the rear wheel of an Infovista rider. I guess I was more mentally fatigued than I thought, cuz while I could see what was happening my brain couldnt get my hands to hit the brakes. So I promptly rammed into the back of this guys wheel and fell over like a turtle at a whopping 15 mph or so.
Lee and the other riders were nice about offering to wait for me. I got back up and on the bike, but something was rubbing. Made it couple hundred yards or so around the right turn, and there was Mark Adkinson. He offered me a ride, and I took it, and told Lee and those guys to go on without me. I had a possible appointment for an audition in SF, and didnt want to be late, and was just pissed at myself for being so stupid. Got a ride back to the finish, and rolled down to my car, tail between my legs. Oh, I never told you guys about my tail. Some other time.
If anyone knows of a lamer crash, my ego would love to hear about it some time. Big thanks to Lee for trying to keep us all together. We had a nice little pack going for a while. Special thans to Mark A. for the ride, cold water, and paper towels for my wounds. I picked a great month to start shaving!

take care guys, derek

Nelson Frink, Wente RR, 45+ 4/5

"Thirty seconds to the whistle", the ref announced right after Darin Salk, Jim Kuphaldt and I pulled in from our warm-up ride into the 45+4/5 group of 75 racers. Whoa! That was close! We rolled out casually at first, and soon I see orange and blue move to the front and pick the tempo up to racing speed. I assumed it was Jim, but then saw him further back, and asked Darin who our teammate was on the front. It was Hal Sloane, and he led for at least a mile.

I was dropped on the first lap on the second portion of the climb on the more gradual stretch after the Freeway Overpass. When the other scattered riders around me on the descent weren't trying to catch the 15 or so riders 100 yards ahead, I burned a couple of matches to catch back on in the descent and on the more gradual 2nd climb. When we looped back around to the starting point, I looked back and there were at least 40 racers, and I realized I could have sat in and caught back on without working so hard. On the 2nd lap climb, I decided I needn't try to hold the front group but rather keep close enough to get back in on the downhill and flats. About 20 racers in two groups were ahead of me going over the top, but when I looked back there were just a few scattered racers for a long way back, and I realized the reinforcements weren't going to come through this time. I chased hard on the downhill and back onto the 2nd gradual uphill, but couldn't close the 50 yard gap to the 10 rider chase group. I soloed quite awhile until I was picked up by five guys as I looped past the race start. We caught some dropped riders on the third lap, and I came in third of the ten or so of us on the finishing climb for 19th place overall.

On the drive home I was talking with Jim who said it was the most difficult course he'd raced by far, and I was arguing that the course wasn't so tough as the competition. However, as we talked about it more, I realized he was right. The mountain goats would push mere mesomorphs like us over the red line and get a little gap on the steep section before the freeway, and then try hard to extend it on the section after the freeway. The Sea Otter road race had more total vertical over the same distance, but the toughest climb was only about as long as the first stretch before the freeway, and the fast climbers couldn't get a big enough gap to hold off the pack on the long gradual downhill into the wind, so they quit trying after the first couple of laps. The short, fast downhill at Wente was hard to bridge on, and was followed by another gradual climb where they could bury the hatchet. At Copper the climb was followed by a long, flatter section where you could always see the front group and thus be encouraged to work with other riders to get back on. I'm told that the Berkeley road race has more overall climbing than Wente, but they're shorter climbs. Hopefully I'll have a better chance of holding/rejoining onto the front group there. For anyone who's interested, here's my garmin file for the race. I had 53 minutes of 93% or greater of max heart rate, which beat my prior high of 49 minutes at Copper. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5514115

Lessons learned: 1. Just because the first race is delayed 15 minutes doesn't mean the following ones will. 2. Don't assume you'll be able to get help from others to get back on if you're dropped. It's better to burn extra energy closing a gap than soloing for miles. 3. Frozen water bottles may be nice for long rides, but they're just extra weight in a shorter race. I suppose I shouldn't complain about getting one from Jim's brother Joe who ran a fast forty yards uphill to pass it to me on the 3rd lap. The cool sips I did get from it occasionally were so nice, and I was lucky to get anything at all at the no-neutral-support feed zone.

Nelson

Leon Basdekas, Wente RR, 35+ 5

My goals were just as Stan described-- stay upright and have fun. Mission accomplished! My strategy was to hang with the lead group and then try to hang in the pack and recover, I started calling it "hang and hide". Justin did a great job of describing our race so I'll just add a few notes from my perspective. The first climb was very tough and I was thinking I couldn't hold the pace long but was able to hang and make it over the major climb. I was glad to see Justin made it over and from there the rest of the first lap was mostly uneventful. The second time through the climb was tough again and I saw Justin fading and was thinking that would be it for him. I was able to hang through the climb and then at the bottom imagine my surprise when Justin came up beside me panting like a dog on a hot summer day. Awesome effort to catch back on! Justin didn't give himself enough credit, that guy is a fast descender and has a never give up attitude. So as the race progressed down to the highway that runs north there is a short hill. Well the group slowed way down so I figured that I would go up front for a token pull and speed things up a bit as my legs had recovered pretty well and hoped to maybe take a bit out a few others that were hurting. Well nobody would pull through after that I eased up and everybody stayed behind me. So I just settled in and rode tempo for a bit. It was actually kind of fun being on front for a bit. After passing through the start area I slowed to stretch my calves and finally people started to come around and I settled back in the pack. The pace really slowed after a bit and just by the group morphing I found myself on front again at and easy pace so I figured I would take it up again. We went through a few areas with slight inclines and I could hear the guys behind me saying things like "oh no here come the hills again" That was my cue to lift the pace a tad. After we made the right turn to "the climb" I started increasing the pace and shortly after that the guys started to come around me. I was trying to hold the pace while looking for Sandrine with my bottle (I carried two and got a new one on the last lap) I spotted her and waved and it was a perfect handoff (Thanks again Sandrine and Lauren, you rock!, It would not have been the same race without that bottle). After we got dropped Justin was hanging tough but cramped briefly I think it was just before a right hander and a small climb, I asked him what I should do he said go, so I did. Well not too long after that I thought I heard something, looked back and saw Justin chasing me so I eased up, the two man TT formed and we were off. Apparently he had to yell four times before I heard him. Did I say this guy won't quit!! He had his head about him keeping us on orderly pulls as we TT'd. We worked very well together. I was fighting cramps at one point and needed a quick stretch, and was really thankful for that extra bottle! Coming through somewhere near the start area we caught what we thought was our race pack but it turned out to be a pack of juniors soft pedaling and strategizing, that was a bit demoralizing but we pressed on. I was hoping we had a shot at top ten as long as we didn't get caught. Then we saw the Synergy guy and thought that passing one rider may make a difference if we were close to a top ten position. When we stared the the last climb I rode determined that I could catch him and closed on him as his teammates on the side of the rode were yelling at him that I was closing on him. I stayed about 20m behind for a few seconds to size things up when I caught a glimpse of the finish. I tried to shift quietly dropping a gear or two and gave it my all in a sneak attack. I went around him with enough speed where he couldn't jump my wheel, he would have to work to get it. I didn't know if he was there or not so I just kept my head down all the way through the finish line going across with a heart rate of 188 (1 below my max).

Lesson learned:

When people are hurting you on the climbs do not pull on the flats (even if you feel good)
Teammates can make all the difference: TT partner, lets you back into pace line, encouragement etc.

Thanks Justin for making it a great race experience.

Leon

p.s. Getting 9th was just icing on the cake...

Darin Salk, Wente RR, 45+ 4/5

Hot, hilly and fun. Very happy with the 8:35 am start - it must have been brutal at Noon. Another personal victory: not last, no crash. Jim K and Nelson F we're the stallions again, with Jim finishing 9th and Nelson somewhere close by. I got popped off the lead group before the 1st of 3.5 laps was over. Still need to drop lbs!!! I TT'd for a while until thankfully Hal came along with about 8 riders. With some "subtle" screaming from Hal and yours truly we got a pace line together and rotated whenever possible. When it works, a smoothly rotating pace line has to be one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done in cycling!

Most of our group hung together until the final uphill climb to the finish. The race rides, Wheelworks ride (with a little Master's swimming too) and mentoring from our leaders and other experienced racers is starting to pay off. I was hurting pretty bad but was able to put the DBC hammer down and drop all the guys in the group before crossing the line with what I can only describe as a classic Fast Freddie description of HTFU - let's just say I wasn't looking or feeling my best! But I was happy and satisfied.

After recovering, Jan (3rd place in Master's 1-2-3!), Hal and I rolled back, and I just missed the start of the Masters 35+ Cat-5 race - sorry I missed you guys - please get older soon!

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

Karl Wurzbach, Wente RR 35 + 4

Happy that I was able to sleep in but still could not sleep past 7am........need to get to bed earlier. Knew it was gonna be fairly warm today - low to mid 80's so I hydrated well for several days. Race started at 1155am and as I'm registering I see Stegall and we are talking about neutral water support when an official tells us there will be no neutral water support. ARGGGHHHHHHH!!!! Most of us ended up carrying 3 bottles for the ride. We had good numbers as there were I think about 8 of us Lee, Loren, Fred, Derek, John S., Stan, myself and a few more I can't recall right now. 15 mile loop with a couple of decent climbs per loop.

Seemed like the whole pack of 100 was together after the first loop and the 2nd loop dropped the pack to about 50-60. As we start the 3rd loop I pull my last bottle of liquid from my jersey pocket and drop it ... Great! ... God bless John S. as he had 1 1/2 bottles left and gave me his full water bottle and I needed all of it. The lead pack hammered the climb and the group split to a lead pack of 10 and several chase packs. I stayed with the lead group suffering considerably but couldn't hang on the 2nd tier of the climb. I was passed by several riders but after working solo for about 3 miles a chase group of 5 riders came by and yelled to grab a wheel and we were flying! A great group effort caught the lead pack about 2-3 miles later. I was fighting off cramps as we caught the lead pack but was able to recoup for the finish.

The lead pack was about 28 riders with 3 flat miles and 1 mile uphill to the finish. John S. and I were next to each other in the top 5 ready to strike when John's chain came off about 1.5 -2 miles from the finish. Not what I wanted to see. The group really ramped up about then and we were moving well just prior to the last right turn with .8 mile to go up a fairly tough hill to the finish. A couple guys jumped quickly and I was thinking "they've got way too much gas left in their tanks!" I tried to hang on as long as I could but was passed by several riders. 18th place. There were 3 or 4 guys within 5-10 yards of me at the finish but I really didn't give a rip whether I passed them or not. I was completely spent. My goal was to be with the pack at the finishing sprint so a good race for me. Ready for some flat crits.