April 1 - Ward's Ferry Road Race, Sonora
Race info

Race photos: RonaldMariano.com

Elite Men's Category 4 report by Phong To, Delta Velo

I find that learning to race hard when being out of shape can be as hard as convincing yourself to believe in goat nipples again. Yes, we all know these things don't make sense in this world, but we have goat cheese at Trader Joe's. So although there's really no direct evidence for goat nipples (don't even try to look for them in your text books), I just brush the logical stuff aside and continue having faith that I'll pull it off in the next attempt--despite the fact that I've been getting dropped by riders who've been dropped (that's "dropped-to-the-3rd-power", or simply "dropped-cubed" for you college grads). Some guys can still ride a really hard pace after getting dropped, and I'm not one of those guys. Anyways...

It was nice seeing so many DV's out there. Even baby Sarah showed up to show support!

Rodrigo, David, and I had to ride in the B group since we didn't pre-reg. The first laps of Ward's Ferry are supposed to warm you up, but not this year. On the third or fourth climb, the boys started the selection processes right away. After 5 or 6 good ones, I didn't make the cut and ended up in no-man's land.

I don't know if the smallish grouping of 20-something riders had anything to do with it, but no chase group came knocking. So I tried to pace the guys ahead hoping for some type of calvary from behind to save me, but none came calling. I ended up "chasing" with two other guys, but it wasn't great. One guy was much stronger on the climbs, and would disappear whenever things pointed up (I don't blame him--we really sucked on the climbs). The other guy was stronger on the descents and flats, so he would catch me when things pointed down or straight, and we'd work together and eventually catch the better climber after some miles. And then repeat when we hit some climbing. OK, so it wasn't much of a group.

On the third lap, and out of food (the bumpy roads robbed me of one of my Nestle Quick chocolate flasks), I figured I should just drop the two guys and shoot for top 10 rather than wait to fade on the last lap. All I got is the descents, so that's what I focused on. My first few attempts were clumsy and half-hearted, but then things clicked, and I was off and pushing myself at a hard pace while trying to limit cramping. Not the most practical or logical strategy, but it wasn't bad because imagining that I was being chased helped my pace and I caught some riders.

I was by myself and didn't have anything at the finish, but I did fake it just in case teammates were watching. I ended up an unofficial 6th or 7th (the counter said one guy ahead of me was down a lap). Prizes were 6 deep, but we were in no mood to wait for the official word. So the nutty plan paid off and I ended up with more than I expected, considering my fitness. Rodrigo and I over-replenished in the parking lot, and then stopped by a gourmet taco truck (yes, they do exist) on Westlane to finish off the re-fueling. We figured since Damian wasn't around to have a heart-attack, it was a good time to carbo-load for Sea Otter :o). The taco truck had tripe, cabeza (head), lengua (tongue?) ....but NO goat nipples (see what I mean?). But I gott'a have faith, still. Si you at Sea Otter.

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