Todays’ ride was 3 times up Mt Diablo, for a little over 10k feet of climbing. 67 miles, 5 hours. I started at the south gate, then rode the north gate, the back to the car for cold bottles and food and one more time up the south gate. I was really quick getting stuff out of the car so I wouldn’t be tempted to quit. If you sit down and relax you’ll stop.

I used to ride Diablo all the time 20 years ago but I have only been on it twice since, once last year and once today.

There’s a lot more riders on it now. And unlike last year this time it seemed like a significant number were doing repeats. I kept seeing the same riders over and over. It could be that this is the last good weekend to train for the Death Ride (most people start tapering the weekend before).

Whatever was making me really tired this week seems to have gone away and my broken toe isn’t too bad. The smoke from all the forest fires to the north was noticeable from about halfway up probably due to the inversion layer but it wasn’t all that bad either. Enough to wreck the view, but at least that kept tourist traffic down. My times were 1:07 from Athenian school 1:12 from the north gate and 1:12 from the school again. I was getting kind of tired on the last one.

Near the top of the last climb, right before the steep 1/4 mile at the end, a big rattlesnake was crossing the road. I had to slow down to wait for him to cross.

Last night I was getting up from the couch and accidentally kicked the leg of the coffee table with my bare foot. It hurt a lot at the time but I didn’t think it was that bad until a couple hours later when it swelled up and started throbbing. Today its all black and blue, swollen and hurts to walk. I hope it’s not broken.

I think I’ll be off the bike for a while. This is going to put a damper on my Death Ride and Mt Evans training.

My club puts on the Pescadero Road Race, so last saturday I got to work instead of race. But I got to ride lead moto, which was a lot more fun than being a course marshal.

Being not that experienced at it (this is the second time I’ve done it), I got assigned to the women’s combined Cat 3/4 and 35+ race. They normally don’t get lead motos at all, so I suppose it was an upgrade for them. The two fields were full so the pack was about 75 racers. Someone put an orange “RACE OFFICIAL” vest on me and during the pre-race talk given to the women the lead official introduced me (the women clapped) and noted that I’d be enforcing the centerline rule. So I sort of had a field promotion to race ref.

The most important thing about being a moto, besides not crashing, is to not get in the way, which means don’t get caught on the downhills. Bike racers can go faster than all but the very best moto riders on a technical downhill and this course is very technical. So the trick is to get ahead of the pack or at least in a large enough gap between riders that you won’t get caught. Or behind the pack. But on a hill course the pack will constantly be losing people out the back on the hills, so behind is not the best place to be.

I had a couple crashes to deal with- not much I could do, and my job was to keep with my field, so I had to go on after telling the women that someone would be along to pick them up. I didn’t get anyone for a centerline violation, they were being good about it, but I did have to eject a cat 5 guy from the women’s field. He even argued with me about it. What a dweeb.

Doing lead moto for this race used a lot of the skills that I’ve developed in the last 30 years of motorcycling. I did a lot of slow riding up hills, using my trials skills to ride a straight and predictable line so riders from other races could pass me. Downhill I was going as fast as I thought was safe in order to keep out of the way of fast riders behind me. It was more tiring than riding- when I got home I took a two hour nap.

I went to this race after all (see whining in previous entry). But I didn’t do my usual job of preparation- forgot the directions to the race, forgot the extra food and water, and most important, forgot to obsess about the race beforehand. The pre-race obsession is important. It puts me in the right frame of mind for the race. If I’m too casual about it, in the race I’m too willing to give up.

I made a mistake on the drive up- took the wrong freeway- so I arrived later than I wanted. After signing in, using the facilities and pinning a number on I wound up with a warmup of only about 20 minutes They ran the 35+,45+ and 55+ cat 4/5s all together, so we had a pack of about 40. Three team-mates took off from the start on the flat/rolling section and stayed away. The pack went moderately hard but not all out. My lack of warmup (and two days off the bike) meant that even at the moderate pace my legs really hurt.

As we got to the turn that marks the start of the climb I move up from the back and when we got on the first litle steep part I stood up and went past the front of the group (the other three guys still being up the road) and stretched out the pack. I felt pretty good for about 1/2 mile then realized that I wasn’t dropping many riders and I was going a little too hard. I dropped back and about 15 guys went by and got a gap. Then another five. Crap.

But the five wern’t getting away. Over the next three miles I slowly reeled them in, getting closer when the climb got steeper and losing ground when it leveled off. I finally got some of then near where it gets steeper and the rest on the first steep part. We passed some other riders too, including at least one of the three breakaways.

The last couple miles are insanely steep. I finally got rid of the last of the five and a couple more we’d caught too. But someone was catching me! I glanced back a couple times and he kept getting closer. On the very steepest part I could hear him breathing. Then I heard some gasping, choking noises, then nothing. I think he had to stop to puke. As the finish approached there wern’t any riders ahead that I could catch and no one behind, so I eased up a bit. Then I realized there was a guy behind and he was coming fast. He got almost up to my wheel and I put in a surge but I didn’t have much left and it wasn’t enough… he recovered and passed me about 200 meters before the finish.

I congratulated that guy as we were cooling down. Unfortunately he was another 45+, so I lost a place there. Maybe if I’d been psyched for the race I’d have had just enough extra motivation to hold him off.

Placing? I have no idea. I didn’t want to wait around for the results. Maybe as good as 15th or so overall but who knows how many of those were 35s. I’ll put the result here when I get it.

I’m supposed to do a race tomorrow- Ross’ Epic Hillclimb- but I’m not really in the mood. I took the last two days off of riding to take one of my motorcycles in for service yesterday and to get some work done today (wrote 800 lines of code, didn’t go outside). But that’s too many days off riding, makes me vaguely depressed and sluggish. Bleah.

I’m behind in my race reports again. A couple weeks ago (5/24) I rode the Heartbreak Hundred, the final in the KOM series. Last year it was very hot, like over 100, and being able to ride well in the heat moved me up in the KOM series standings from 30-something to 9th. This year we already had the hot ride that got me 10th at the Mulholland Challenge, so the Heartbreak had to be cold and miserable to make up for it.

I was in 5th overall going in and had a chance to catch 4th only 8 or so minutes ahead. Third was 45 minutes and there was no way I’d catch him. On the other end there were two or three riders just behind me in the overall who could catch me. This ride suits me less than the others- there’s 20 miles of flat between the two climbs, and another 10 of rolling hills after the second climb, and I am not so good at flat or rolling.

I camped out in the van at the start and it rained overnight. When I got up in the morning the mountain right behind town had snow on it, down to about 300′ above town. Since we go up 4500′ from there it looked like it was going to be a very cold ride.

The weather didn’t warm up any by my start time but the first climb had a tailwind so it wasn’t bad. I kept a good pace up the climb, not too hard. No one passed me, but I’d started kind of early, hoping to beat the headwinds in the valley section, so I was passing slower riders.

Near the end of the long rolling descent a group of serious looking guys caught me. I sat in a bit then wanted to get into the rotation but for some reason they didn’t seem to want to let me in. Maybe because I tend to draft a little far back behind riders that I am not sure about. Then WHOOSH, giant red triathlon dude went by! The same guy who passed me on Breathless. Only in full tuck, TT bike, skinsuit and a pointy aero helmet. And about 10mph more speed. Holy shit.

The group got disorganized and guys muttered something about “state time trial champion” but I noticed that while he’d passed us going fast, he wasn’t disappearing all that quick. So I went to the front and pulled for a while. GRTD wasn’t getting any closer but he wasn’t disappearing either. The paceline got reorganized and they started letting me into the rotation.

Then we turned into the wind. Boy did this part suck. The pace dropped to 14-15 mph (I rode this section solo last year at 18-22 mph). GRTD disappeared into the distance. I drafted real close in the paceline. It seemed pretty easy until it was my turn at the front, then it was hard but not that bad. Some of the other guys were breathing real hard when they pulled off and I thought we were going to lose a couple. We caught a few riders and they worked into the group.

The next rest stop (I’d skipped the first one) was halfway through the flat headwind section. I made a quick stop and got out in front of the group. I worked for about 5 miles to catch a couple riders up the road who then slowed down. I felt I could go faster but when I rode away they jumped for my wheel. I should have attacked harder but I didn’t think that I’d be able to stay away, and getting caught would look dumb.

As we approached the turn to the gradual start of the next climb the old group I’d been with before caught us. I thought that when we turned I’d have a tailwind so I gunned it to the front in preparation for leaving them all behind, only to discover that I’d miscalculated the wind and it was still a headwind! Oops. Back to pacelining until the actual climb starts. Some of the riders were getting tired and making mistakes (getting too close to the rider ahead and suddenly swerving) and other riders were yelling at them. I was getting irritated with the whole thing so on the first actual rise I attacked and rode away.

Only one guy was able to come with me. There was more flat road before the real climb. He wouldn’t pull through but he looked weak enough that I figured I’d get rid of him when the real climb started. Right when we got there we caught a small group of riders so I attacked again figuring that my passenger would be just as happy to sit on their wheels as mine. It worked but a half mile up the road, someone was on my wheel again. Dammit!

He came up and said “hey, I remember you from last year!”. It turned out to be Chris, the guy I’d ridden part of Heartbreak with last year. He’d been in that group I’d attacked, riding with some teammates. We talked as I kept up a decent tempo on the beginning of the climb. After a bit he dropped off to go back to his group. Finally I was on a climb and alone (although I wouldn’t have minded trading pulls with Chris, he’s strong and willing to work).

I tried keeping a good pace up the “Heartbreak” climb (it gradually gets steeper and steeper). The headwind made it a little tougher but it wasn’t that bad. Near the top my calves started threatening to cramp so when I got to a section that was in the lee of a cliff I rode no hands and fished a salt tablet and ibuprofen out of my pocket. I need a salt pill every couple of hours on long rides and the ibuprofen helps me ignore the little nagging pains you get from being on a bike for a long time (and riding too hard and being old).

The last rest stop was right around the corner. No one else there, I was close to the front of the ride now. The wind almost blew me over as I rolled across the gravel to the stop. The nice people there filled my water bottle while I grabbed some pretzels. Someone asked how the weather was treating me. I told them that I greatly preferred last years weather (it was 103 degrees). Everyone stared at me and someone said “really?” “Yep,” I replied, “but you have to ride what’s available” and I rode off.

Last year the part after the last stop really hurt. There’s about an hour of rolling hills where you think you should be done, surely, around the next bend. I’d driven this part on my way down to Breathless this year so it was fresh in my mind. I’d even mentally noted the turns that had gravel in them so I’d remember to slow down there.

About halfway the course turned and we had a tailwind for a long stretch across a valley. I was flying (for me) here. I was checking behind and on the other side of the valley I looked back and a couple riders were gaining on me. They caught me eventually. Two teammates, one very strong 30-something guy and a 50-something dude just hanging on to his wheel. The younger guy and I traded some pulls, me pulling harder up the hills. We got to the point that I remembered from my reconnaissance as being the start of the descent, so I told the other guys. They didn’t seem to be that interested in working hard, but I realized that I still had something left, and my time was awfully close to 6 hours already. If I wanted to salvage any sort of good finish (i.e. under 6 hours), I’d better put out some effort.

So that’s what I did, for the whole descent. It really hurt and I was surprised that the much larger young guy wasn’t taking pulls, but I didn’t want to waste time trying to get him to work. In hindsight I think I was going pretty hard. A couple miles away from the finish the wind changed direction again and we were blasted by a headwind. I wilted and the other guy finally came around and pulled into the wind, which I was grateful for. We’d dropped his older teammate by that time.

We turned onto the frontage road and I won the sprint up the hill to the motel parking lot, then flew around to the back where the timekeepers were. We both got the same finish time, but since I’d left later I got a lower overall time. My time was 5:53, just a little better than last year.

Hardly anyone was there, but the winner (giant red tri dude) was there. His time was almost 40 minutes faster than mine, and it’d been enough to move him from third to first overall. Riders started trickling in. I talked with a bunch of riders- GRTD, the older teammate, Chris, white jersey guy from Breathless (Mike, he won the over-50 class). Riders from the group I’d worked with on the flat came in and gave me the “good ride dude” nod.

I hung out long enough to get some results. I’d been in 5th overall with 4th not far ahead, but a couple guys were close behind me. Two of them turned in a time a couple minutes better than mine. I wound up 6th in the Heartbreak. In the overall the guy who had been in 4th was almost 20 minutes slower, so I moved up to 4th.

I’m pretty happy with fourth. I’d like to do better of course but given the talent of the top three there wasn’t anything I could to to catch them. Giant red tri dude (I looked it up later) is actually a two-man team record holder in RAAM, recent SoCal masters TT champ, and won the cat 4/5 overall at the Everest Challenge a couple years ago. Yea, he’s super-human good.

Another KOM series ride/race- the queen stage of the series, with the most climbing and the longest climbs.

Unlike last year, this year I picked a slightly better class of motel- no bulletproof glass in the lobby. It was still noisy and hard to sleep. There were other riders staying there but I was the first up at 5am for the free breakfast. Really watery coffee. Mini donuts don’t work for me but I’d brought my own breakfast. After a huge dinner I still managed to get down a hippie bagel (sprouted whole wheat) and one and a half of these giant vegan low sugar cinnamon buns I’d gotten at Whole Foods.

I got signed in early and had to wait around till it was time for me to start (faster riders need to start later so the checkpoints are open when they arrive). At the last minute I decided to get rid of my long sleeve jersey, which turned out to have been a good decision as it was much warmer than last year. I intended to start off with a big group of Santiago club riders and some others including George Vargas who I know has done well before. But the signout guy was being really slow marking me down and the group went up the road without me. I sprinted to catch up, almost made it but got stopped at a stoplight, and then had to sprint again, all on cold legs. Ooof. But I got on. I wanted to get with a fast group for the initial flat parts of the ride.

The group gained people and got up to about 30 including a very agressive riding woman. On the first small climb a guy went to the front and got a gap. He has on kit with so many logos that I couldn’t pick out the main club/sponsor but he had a giant AUDI across his butt. The agressive woman shot up to take his wheel so I went up to get on. We gained a couple others and a good gap from the Santiago group. But on the other side we had to stop at a stoplight and they all caught up. At least we had an easy ride behind them for the next 10 miles of flat.

I knew that the first “pass” of the ride, Jackrabbit trail, had rough pavement and potholes so there’s not much room to pass. I tried to move up in the group so I wouldn’t get boxed in behind slower climbers but wasn’t completely successsful. When we got on Jackrabbit I had to ride through a couple potholes before a gap opened up and I could shoot through to get past everyone. A couple came after me and one even passed me. The woman and Audi caught up. They were going my pace so I fell in with them. But they were riding side by side so when we caught slower riders they’d be trying to go three wide when there was only one or two riders’ worth of room. After a couple times of getting balked when someone braked suddenly I went around them and suggested that we ride single file.

On the front of our little group I could be more careful about picking a good line while passing riders. Picking a line is important on this road as it’s full of potholes, gravel, and chunks of rock. We passed many riders on the side of the road fixing flats.

The next flat part Audi and the woman caught me. Audi would barely acknowledge my presence but the woman and I talked- she was going for time and had won the woman’s divsion last year. I told her that I’d done 6 hours last year and was hoping to do 5:30. I could tell that she was thinking “yea right” but too polite to say it. That is a big jump and to be honest I didn’t think I could do it.

I made a fast stop at the checkpoint/food stop, grabbing a banana and muffin to eat on the road. Audi and Colleen (ok, I looked her name up in the results) caught me. Audi was stronger than me on the flat and whenever he slowed for a moment Colleen would go to the front to keep the pace up. I could tell by the way she was riding that she was really amped up to get a good time.

On the first real hard climb, Oak Glen, Audi dropped back and Colleen got a gap on me. I’d gone hard to get on the Santiago group and to get rid of them on Jackrabbit and I had to slow down a little to recover. I could see her up the road for most of the climb. A guy from Swamis (a SoCal club) passed us both and proceeded up the road. Near the top I couldn’t see either of them. I bombed the descent, cornering hard and tucking in tight on the straights. Working with a couple other guys helped. Near the bottom we caught Colleen, and at the next rest stop, Swamis dude was still there. But I needed to pee, and they didn’t have any portapotties! There were bathrooms at the forest service station we were at but the people in them were being really slow and there was a woman with small children in line in front of me. I couldn’t bring myself to cut in front of her so I stood there with time ticking away… probably three or four minutes. I should have just found a tree or something to pee behind but no, I was trying to be polite. Dumbass!

The next part is hard for most people, the organizers call it “Damnnation Alley”. It’s a long gradual climb, you can see way up the road and there’s a tailwind so it’s hot. I like that so I was going well. But a couple riders actually passed me here! One guy in white, another guy breathing funny, and then when they were just a bit in front of me and I could catch them if I wanted, this huge triathlete rocketed by me. He quickly caught the other guys and they killed themselves to catch on the train. They didn’t get that much farther away though- for the next hour I could see them up the road. Somewhere in here I caught a guy who grabbed on to my wheel like a limpet. I thought I recognized him and finally realized that he was the guy who’d out sprinted me at the top last year. Rotten little wheel-sucking dweeb. There was no way I was going to make this guys ride easier for him, so I gave a good acceleration to drop him.

At the next checkpoint, last before the top, white jersey was just leaving as I arrived, and Colleen was there too. I grabbed some food and took off after white jersey. The next 10 miles were rolling hills. This part killed me last year but I was feeling good. I hung behind white jersey for the entire time as he was going exactly the pace I wanted to go. The end of this section is a short twisty descent and I caught up to white jersey on this. At the start of the final climb we talked- he asked who I was and when I started, and then said that he’d started at 7:15 and was in fourth place. I’d started right before 7, so I wasn’t much of a threat since I couldn’t make up 15 minutes on him on the last climb. At least I didn’t think so; he tried to convince me that the key to the event was taking it easy on the last climb so maybe he did. But I wanted to crush it on the last climb and use up what I had left. I told him that my goal was a 5:30 time and he said “oh, I think you’ll make that” right as I dropped him.

After that there was only one other guy, who said “you’re going well, go go!” as I went by. I kept up a good pace for a couple miles and was feeling pretty good for having climbed 10,000 feet. Then I stood up and my legs just about locked up. Oops, maybe I went a little too hard at the beginning. I tried to ride the rest seated but it’s funny how much you want to stand up when you think you can’t. I started doing the math in my head and realized that I really was on a good time. It was kind of wierd to not see any other riders. The top came sooner than I expected and I wound it out, still seated, to the top. The timers cheered and gave me a time- 12:10. Since I left a couple minutes before 7, that’s a time under 5:15 (5:13 official time).

There were only a few riders there. Swamis guy was just leaving(!). Big triathlete dude was there, and a couple 20-something guys. I relaxed for a bit and then started sampling some of the food the volunteers were laying out. Off in the bushes one of the 20-something guys was puking (I figured out later that he was the winner). If you don’t go hard enough to vomit you’ll be wondering if you could have done more. Tri guy said he had a time just under 5 hours but didn’t win. White jersey guy came in about 8 minutes after me. As I hung out at the top we tallked; he recognized me from the Everest Challenge (I beat him there). Colleen came in just after white jersey guy; she broke her previous women’s record but was concerned because somone told her that another woman had come in before her, then was worried that another woman behind her might have started at a earlier time. I guess if you’re good enough to be the best you have to worry about staying on top (she wound up with a 5:21 time, a new women’s record. The next woman was just over 6 hours).

My time would have been good enough for second last year but this year the course was faster due to better winds. Still, it’s way better than I thought I could do. I was hoping it’d be in the top 10 but lots of riders went fast so it was only 12th. It’s helped me a bit in the KOM series; I’m 5th.

60 miles (incl. warmup), 4200 feet of climbing

I’d originally marked the Wente RR as an A race. Not because I like it, but because its got at least some hills and it’s later in the season so I had more time to train. And having grown up in Livermore and ridden there a lot, I know the roads. Wente is a loop with a couple short climbs, a fast descent, a small climb and descent, and some flat. 15 miles, and the M45 4/5s do it three times. The finish is at the top of the first climb so you do it one more time.

On the Chain Reaction ride I asked Karl how the race usually unfolds. He said that you have to make sure on the climbs that you don’t get gapped from the leaders- you can’t just hang on the wheel in front because that guy may be getting gapped. Karl also reminded me about the sharp turn on the descent. I assumed that it would be the usual hit the first climb hard and the pack breaks up.

During my warmup I climbed up the descent and went back down through the tight corners- one had a wall of haybales to keep errant riders from going over the edge and into a nasty looking steel fence.

At the start the moto ref reminded everyone that the centerline rule was in effect. So of course on the first time up the climb when the packs all bunched up some idiot makes a blatant move up on the wrong side of the line, and gets
relegated to the back by the moto ref. He actually statred arguing with the ref, with guys in the pack saying “go back”. At the time I was going up on the right side where there was plenty of room, so I don’t know how long he argued with the ref. He was parked near me so after the race I overheard him using that relegation as an excuse for not doing well when his friends asked how his race went.

So far this year, by the end of the first climb on every race I have lost touch with the leaders. This time I made it! I was so psyched. Karl was right, I had to go around people who were gassed and dropping back from the leaders. At the top I was with a group of about 20 of 75 starters. As we descended the climb some more riders came back. On the next small climb and descent more arrived. By the flat part the field was mostly together- we’d only dropped about 15 guys. No one really wanted to pull so we wern’t going that fast.

But with the pack still large and not going that fast, it was kind of squirrely. I was being particularly nervous, every time someone would get too close I’d flinch. I spent too much time in the wind too. It was starting to look like the race might go down to a largish field sprint, and I didn’t want that. I was suddenly filled with loathing for the guys in the pack. I wanted to get rid of them.

On the gradual climb before the steep part I went to the front to make sure I wouldn’t be boxed in on the climb, then on the climb I set a hard pace. One guy came with me and by the top some other riders were catching but I’d created a selection- maybe 10-15 guys. At the top I was just hanging on the back of the group. Then on the descent into the haybale corner the guy in front of me slowed way down. He was on the left side of the lane so I couldn’t pass him on the left, and I didn’t want to go on the inside because he’d probably clip the apex and hit me. So we got gapped from the leaders. I said a bad word when I passed him on the next tight turn. On the next uphill he managed to catch back on but I was cooked and couldn’t do it. I could see my teamate Bruce (who did well at Copperopolis) in the lead group, so I was hoping that the selection I created would do him some good.

I wound up riding in with a small group. I beat them up the hill at the finish. I didn’t check my placing- it was probably over 20th. I was happy that I’d actually gone to the front and been agressive, and done something tactically in a race- sit in the back and hope you don’t get dropped doesn’t count.

I hit a higher heart rate than I have in about three years. No asthma problems- the new meds were working well, and it being warm (min temp 58, avg 74, max 89) helped. There’s a huge difference in my performance when I can breathe. But I haven’t trained at those kinds of efforts, so I don’t really know what I can do. That’s part of the reason I went a little too hard on my effort to break up the race.

Bruce wound up with a fourth, which was pretty good.

Sea Otter RR, 4/19

My race started almost two hours late, as the wind kicked up and the fog was closing in. At the start line I noticed that all the other old slow guys had different numbers (different range and color) than mine. I figured out that I’d been given the wrong number at signup. A couple times during the race a moto ref asked me about it- the second time he tried to eject me from the pack. I explained that I was really in this race and he was nice enough to radio to the scorers to check, then come back later and tell me it was cool.

That was a couple laps into the circuit and a little after that I lost contact. I rode on my own for most of a lap and then got caught by a small group. We worked together more or less till the start of the longer climb up Barloy where a couple guys tried to go for it. I managed to pull them back then drop them on the climb, for a 24th place. I didn’t feel particularly happy about it, more like obligated since longer climbs are the thing I suck the least on. I was cold and hungry for most of the race, and forgot my gloves so my hands were freezing and there was no place to wipe the snot. I started with two bottles and only drank one.

The results originally had me in the regular Cat V race, I had to email the organizers and politely ask for the results to be fixed. I’m suprised that they did it.

I wasn’t happy with this race (too cold, too late in the day, parking is a hassle, hard to get to the start) or my performance (climbs too short, didn’t work hard enough to stay in pack, spent too much time at the back). But the support was great with all the moto refs and wheel cars etc, and being on a closed course with no centerline rule was cool.

Last saturday (4/12) I rode the Mulholland Challenge, first in the King of the Mountains series of timed century rides.

Short version: it was hot, I rode hard, finished 14th overall.

Long version: These rides are a hassle to get to, being in So Cal and a minimum of 6 hours drive each way. But at least with the MC I get to visit my old college friend Mark, the guy who got me into cycling many years ago. Mark even got up at 5am to make pancakes the morning of the race. What a guy!

So Cal had a record-breaking heat wave going this weekend, and when we got up to eat pancackes the wind chimes on Mark’s back porch were dinging, and he said that’s unusual and we’d have Santa Ana winds to go with the heat.

The start was still cold (low 40s) and I dressed for later in the day and had only a light windbreaker on over a short sleeve jersey. So I froze on the ride out to the coast. Like last year I started out with a bunch of guys from the Santiago club and like last year they dropped me on the first little climb when I was too cold to go hard. As we started the first real climb the temp went up about 30 degrees, with a strong head wind. Once we got up into the mountains the wind died down to a reasonable amount. I didn’t catch that many riders on Topanga but on the next climb up Mulholland past the famous (for motorcyclists) Rock Store I caught a bunch. I made a mistake though- the stop at Peter Straus Ranch, where you have a 100 yard gravel road to go in and out, was a sticker stop the second time we would go past it, not the first time. So I wasted about five minutes stopping there. If I’d been smarter I’d have skipped it.

The descent down Deer Creek to the ocean would have been great- it’s super steep and it looks like if you make a mistake you’ll end up in the ocean. But some cars pulled out in front of me at the top so I had to go slow all the way down.

The next climb after that was Decker, which has a really steep part at the bottom. It’s always hot there too. By this time I’d caught a lot of riders and some of them were starting to wilt in the heat. Some were pulling off the road and stopping in the shade. At the water stop at the top the organizers had ice for our bottles. Riders were dunking their heads under the faucet.

On the way back I did stop for a sticker at Peter Straus. This is where I started to crack on the ride
last year. I was feeling pretty good this time and made a short stop but picked up more ice. By this point it was pretty hot. Farther up the road at a stop light a dust devil blew by nearly blowing me over and breaking branches off roadside trees. At the stop a couple racers from a local team caught up and as we started I went around a couple other riders and they got on my wheel. After pulling for a while I moved over and wiggled my elbow to let the next guy know it was his turn and he was all “hey dude, you got it”. I explained that I wasn’t going to tow them all the way to the next climb and after that we worked together. They did go pretty hard on a couple small hills and I had to tell them that was too hard.

When we got to the last big climb up Stunt Rd I dropped them. I figured I’d use up whatever I’d been saving for this climb, and went pretty hard on the four mile 2000′ climb. About halfway up I started feeling bad- mostly my feet hurt. I went a little slower and counted down the kilometer markings painted on the road. At the top they had a rest stop where I sat in the shade as a volunteer put ice in my bottles. I spent too much time at this stop too, a number of riders I’d passed on the climb caught up to me. The rest stop people said we were in the top 20.

The last part was a short descent and another smaller climb. The teamates caught me on this and went a little faster on the descent. I was close on the rolling hills after that but ran out of energy for about 10 minutes and they got away. Then I passed them stopped fixing a flat. The last few miles are flat, I was in “heading to the barn” mode and caught and dropped a guy.

I finished in 7:38, which wasn’t quite the 7:30 I wanted but pretty close, and good for 10th in the under 50 category. My Polar recorded a max temp of 106 degress. I’m sure that helped my placing.