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Men's 35+ 4/5 report by Mike Fee, Cycle Sports / Trumer Pils Cycling Club

The first thing you need to know about my race is that like last year, they split the 85 or so masters 4/5s into two groups, and I’m pretty sure most of the stronger riders were in the first wave. I was in the second one.

The wind was noticeably more tame than in years past, so when a Metromint guy pedaled off the front in the opening meters, it definitely gave me pause. I thought I'd seen him do well in other races, and I didn’t detect so much as a flutter of response from anyone else. He widened his gap to a good 200 meters by the first stair-step of the big climb, and I was feeling pretty good, and I'd been thinking that I'd never really tried to get into a really early break, so I gave it a little push and gapped the big group pretty easily. One guy followed me, Nelson wearing a Ford jersey, and we ground our way up the hill as the wind kicked up a bit.

We caught the Metro guy about 3/4 of the way up the climb, and as we started to really feel the wind and I started to really question whether this made much sense, he ducked in behind us. We went over the top together, and when we took the right turn at the bottom of the descent I could see we had a decent gap. I said something about taking pulls, but no one ever came around. After a couple of minutes on the 2nd, smaller climb, Nelson said, "I don't think we need to go this hard to stay away." That seemed like pretty flawed thinking, so I gave it another little push and gapped them. Turns out Nelson was very nearly very prescient...

I spent a good twenty minutes really enjoying being solo breakaway guy, but when I turned back into the wind, I instead started thinking, "Crap, this is really hard." Coming into the S/F line, though, I could see no one behind me, and while I was definitely hurting, I started thinking about a glorious, Landis-minus-the-synthetic-testosterone-type ride, since we were just doing a wimpy 2 laps. But about 1/3 of the way up the big climb I saw behind me an apparition in green, who turned out to be the skinniest guy I've seen this side of Michael Rasmussen. Turns out to be an AV rider named Kieran, who won the Mt. Diablo Hill Climb in a time that would have put him 3rd in the 3s; of course, I didn't know that at the time, so when he caught me and I just couldn't hold his wheel, I felt like a total loser, whereas now I'm in a much better psycho-emotional space about it (though thanks for asking). He pedaled away, and by the time I got halfway up the 2nd climb, I'd lost sight of him. I saw no one behind me either, so I figured I'd tempo to the line, feeling pretty good about a mostly-solo 2nd place.

But about five miles shy of the finish, I look back (I know; I shouldn't look back so much) and whom do I see, but Nelson and the Metro guy, still plugging away. I really wanted to yell back to them, "Guys, can't we just do this the easy way?" Instead, I gave it another go; as the Euro pros would say, though, the sensations in my legs weren't pleasant, and I started to worry. I knew I could climb better than them, so I decided to give it everything I had over the last little pitch about a mile before the line, but then that last flat stretch really opened up in front of me, and I started really feeling it, and when I took the first right turn into the power plant they were about 30 meters behind me. I hit the next right turn and stomped on the pedals, at that point generating I'm sure at least 250 watts, and started to hear them behind me. But then the thought entered my mind that if I didn't take 2nd I'd feel like a complete loser for at least a week, and that my wife would get really frustrated with my being grouchy all the time; that gave me just enough to beat them to the line by a bike length.

So there you have it: one of the most painful short RRs I've ever done, but one that leaves me feeling pretty good (though reconsidering the wisdom of the solo breakaway).

Mike Fee, Cycle Sports / Trumer Pils Cycling Club

Men's 35+ 4/5 report by Eric Peterson
In this race I discounted my chances... A 23 mile route to do twice. There were two main climbs on the route. The first was right at the start, a 4 mile beast.

My goal was to make it to the top of that with the pack the first go around so that I wouldn't have to ride the whole race by myself. And I almost did.

Although I had my computer with me this time, I fooled myself into thinking we were near the top after 3 miles. But of course we got around a corner and could see the next mile going straight up. Well, I blew up and started going backwards fast. I did manage to stay with 3 other riders and we stayed together for a good part of the rest of the race, but I must say that the second time up the beast I rode like I was sightseeing. The backside of the course was cool - slightly downhill with a strong tailwind through the big California windmills. Cruised along at 35 with little effort. I gasped my way to the end finishing 30th out of 38. Nothing to be proud of, but I'm not going to get any better at mountainous races without suffering through more of them.

Eric Peterson

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