Pilarcitos #2

I must say I have never cared for the course at Candlestick Point and I’ve even boycotted it in the past. It’s another featureless land fill that is extremely bumpy with only one racing line while on the grass and with tiny little mounds that they call run ups and there’s also more glass on the ground than you would fine at your local recycling center!

Fearless Team Leader and future Vice President David Gill and I arrived around 7:45 and sniffed around a bit looking for a location to set up camp. We found a location very near where the riders exited the dirt onto the long paved straight away because we figured the speed of the riders coming off of the dirt onto the pavement would be slow enough for a bottle feed. It was kind of remote, but it worked. Due to the new rules at the Pilarcitos Series we were not allowed to recon or warm up on the course during a race. This was done to help the scorers speed up the process by not counting people warming up by accident. Judging by the length of time it took to post some of the results yesterday, this had little to no effect. When I finally got to recon the course I found more glass than ever and it was even bumper than I remembered. I immediately knew that this course would be a compromise on tire pressures. You would want to run pretty low pressure to help with traction and take the bite out of the bumps, but in the same instance you would want to run a little higher pressure to prevent pinch flats. As for the glass, it just blind luck. I ended up loaning my spare wheels out to a bunch of riders I didn’t know. It’s hard to watch somebody pay $30.00 to race only to go out on the first lap with a flat!

Due to the new rules I sat on my trainer for 40 minutes and watch the master’s race. When their race ended I got one quick lap in before we lined up on the grid. It was fun hearing David being called up to the front because of his top ten finish in the race at Sierra Point. The elite men went first followed by us singlespeeder 30 seconds later. As we hit the first corner I could see David in second position! About two minutes into the race I came around a corner to discover David on the side of the course. He had dropped his chain! I briefly stopped to offer assistance, but there was nothing I could do. I also discovered to my shock that at the time I wasn’t last place, but I was close having let a bunch of riders by while I stopped. About a lap latter I noticed Erik Thunstrom behind me and I could also see off in the distant that David was back riding again and suddenly a plan came into my head. I slowed my pace and allowed Erik to catch me. I told him that we needed to slow down and allow David to catch on and then have the three of us work together and drag David back up the field as far as we could. David was higher in points than Eric or me. We slowed our pace considerable until David was with us.

We told David of our plan and got down to business. Erik and I were taking long pulls and for the first time all season I was feeling pretty damm good. I actually felt like had some form back. Our team work lasted about a lap and was really a lot of fun! We hit the pavement just past our pits and suddenly there was no more David Gill. It appeared that he simply vanished! With that, Erik said we couldn’t wait anymore and we were off. What we didn’t know is that David had broken a spoke. For the next lap Erik and I worked together, but by the sixth lap my back started to get really tight from all of the jack hammering it was receiving in the bumps. I told Erik this and when I made a bobble going over one of the mounds he was gone. I spent the rest of the race staying out of the way while being lapped and finished

I was pretty happy about this race as I showed big signs of improvement since the beginning of the season. After long drive we made it back to my house without my Vanagon bursting into flames and as I jumped out my right hamstring immediately locked up for about 4 minutes and I was in agony! Apparently my hamstring doesn’t like applying pressure to the accelerator after a cross race for an hour and a half straight and let me know it, but at least both legs didn’t lock and turn me into the human C clamp!

From the end of September to the beginning of April I go on lunch rides where I work in Garlicroy. The reason I don’t ride during the other months that’s just too hot and we don’t have any employee showers. Most of my rides involve the flat as a board bike path that follows the Uvas Creek. There are a bunch of reasons for this:
Garlicroy has more glass and debris on the roads than any place I have every ridden. Even more glass than on the roads in and around Santa Cruz during the height of the tourist season!
There are no cars.
I use the path to connect to a series of short, but steep hills when necessary.
Did I mention it was flat as a pancake? This makes it an excellent choice for recovery rides.
It’s actually pretty scenic.
Most important, the path and Garlicroy lies in an orographic rain shadow. It can be pouring rain in S.C., while the roads here are dry!

So when the trails at home are un-rideable to due rain or mud or the thought of riding the trainer in garage is unbearable or it’s just to nasty to go for a night ride (we used to do night road rides, but this turned out to be one of the scariest things ever and after a couple of near death experiences, we blew it off), I can almost always get one hour in here at work.

15 foot skid mark courtesy of a unleashed 4 pound Chihuahua in what could have resulted in a very ugly physics experiment that was saved by the deft handling of the Chihuahua!

CCCX # 3

I think we may have set a personal record for Blanca, my white VW vanagon this Saturday. Team leader David Gill and new teammate Patrick Lewis aka “Stinky” and I had six bikes, 4 sets of spare wheels, 3 tables, tool boxes and repair stands, coolers, water bottles, three tables, lots of chairs and three big sections of astro turf and two pop up tents. The van was so full that we had to place Patrick in the back van in his own little cocoon and pray that none of the contents inside of the van shifted and crushed him!

Just before we arrived at the new course, we passed the site of some of the first CCCX races held in and around the abandoned barracks of Fort Ord in 1997. The army had just pulled out and it was very eerie racing around what was essentially a ghost town. The old fort is going under a transformation judging by the new mall and all of the new housing development their building. We pulled up to the new venue and scored a nice spot next course and stepped out of the van into what was rapidly becoming a very nice day! The first thing I noticed while setting up the team compound was the small very sandy hill directly after finish line/scoring area and wondered to myself how long the sand would be rideable after it was trampled and rode to death. After assembling the team compound, David and Patrick and I took a lap to check out the course and discovered that this was about as much fun as you could have on a cross course! There were plenty of swooping corners and I particularly enjoyed the high speed singletrack through the oak tress. I wondered if I would have come to the same conclusion if it hadn’t rained for a couple days before the race and all of the firm sand was loose?

Master 45+ A
At this point I have little expectations due to my lack of fitness and have been trying to race myself into shape which by its nature is quite painful. I had a bit of a panic before the start of the race as my front brake cable let go and my lever went to the handlebar. The start line was about as far as you could get from the pits/finishing area and nobody at the starting line had any tool, but luckily Maryann Hunter rode back to the pits and grabbed an allen set for me and I was able to fix my problem or so I thought! The race started and was barely clinging to the back of the pack. We entered the twisting singletrack under the oak trees I grabbed the brakes for the first time since the start of the race and once again my lever went to the handlebar. This in turn made me over shoot the corner and I ended up in the forest where I was lucky not to come into contact with anything. Back on course I made my way to the pits for a bike change. I arrived and shouted to my teammates under the tent “Bike change! Please fix my front brake!” With that I ghost rode my geared bike into the sand and ran a few steps to my singlespeed and grabbed it and threw it over my shoulder and started running up the hill past the pits.

I had traveled about twenty feet when I heard “Stop, Stop! There are no pedals on that bike!” It suddenly became clear to me. Patrick had forgotten his shoes this morning so he borrowed my pedals and Darik Thunstrom shoes so he could race, but hadn’t had the time to reinstall my pedals on my bike. Considering what had just happened I was amazingly calm. If I was in contention for a series I might have laid an egg, but instead I stood there and watched Patrick and some other guy I didn’t know run around like chicken with there heads cut off as they searched for my pedals and tools to install them! After watching Patrick display his amazing mechanical abilities, my singlespeed was ready and I was off. I came through the pits on the next lap and asked for a bike change as the gear on my singlespeed was too small and was told that my geared bike wasn’t fixed yet. Upon hearing that I punched it in order to get some speed up for the hill and hit the little bump in front of it to fast and caught a little air which sent me on a collision course with a big pile of sand to the right of the preferred line which caused me to crash. Luckily the landing was very soft and I did this in place were everybody could see and Harriet Riley was able to capture the moment with her camera! I rode around again and got my geared bike back and did my absolute best to stay out of the way when I got lapped.

Singlespeed A
I started the race and immediately blew sky high and then for the next hour and eighteen minutes I experienced pain, pain and more pain. On the last couple of laps I fought off cramping and the overwhelming desire to go somewhere to find some pie to eat all the while doing your best to keep your slow as molasses, bonking self out of the way. I thought seriously of dropping out of this one, but at least I rode the hill after finish line every time except for the last lap when both of my legs seized. On an entirely different note, it was amazing to see the speeds that the 5 leaders of the Men’s A race were going. It was truly impressive! Hopefully something resembling a little form will come my way soon!

Driver 8

I just heard about this last night. Driver 8 is gone. I'm not a huge dog fan, but this dog was diffferent. He was very special.

Willie, my heart goes out to you!!

Here's a picture of Driver enjoying the 12 hours of 5th Ave a few years back as only Driver 8 could, very laid back!

Pilarcitos #1

In the week leading up the first race of Bay Area Super Prestige Series (Pilarcitos) I became more and more apprehensive. Due to my move and the fact that I was gone every weekend in September, I rode a total of 4 times for the entire month! I got to ride few rides in the before the race and truly I realized just how out of shape I was and how painful this race was going to be. I decided to myself I had to start somewhere and this was race was going to be it. I would race to train.

It was the usual deal on Sunday morning: load the van, wait and load our fearless leader David Gill into the van and then search out a coffee shop that is open at 0:Dark:30 on Sunday morning and then drive my tired old van over the hill and up to Brisbane. Upon our arrival, the course didn’t seem like much, just your normal south of the city land fill. It was flat as a pancake except were somebody had dropped some piles of dirt on it. We disgorged the contains of the van and set up camp, but were immediately told by promoter Tom Simpson that yes, this was a great place for all of the teams to set up but no, we could park the van behind it. Every Pilarcitos race I have attended this always happens and like normal, by the end of the day, the parking lot that we were told we couldn’t park in was full of cars belonging to racers.

David and I immediately went on a recon lap before the C class start and I came to the realization that I was seriously lacking power and my tire pressure was way too high. The course was very bumpy with hidden rocks and crushed pavement lurking under the weeds and I knew there would be lots of flats today. Back in our pits I changed gear ratios to the easiest singlespeed gear that I have and lowered my tire pressure 30psi each. The lower tire pressure really worked quite well for bumps and traction and the easier gearing would help me survive for the whole hour. I had three hours to kill and spent it loaning tools to other races, watched teammates race and fixed a front wheel for some hapless racer who in his first ever cross race had completely taco’ed it. I enjoyed this as I got to beat the wheel repeatedly on the ground trying to straighten rim to the point that I could put it into the truing stand and get it close enough for the guy to ride 10 miles to his house. I was rewarded a beer for my effort and he rode off! I went on a warm up to the south of the venue along a paved path that followed the bay. I rode past one particular dead end channel and looked at the really old pilings and rusted iron fittings and pipes and wonder to myself what had gone on here in the past. As I backed tracked along the path to get to the start of my race I was rewarded with a plaque that stated that this was the former site of a Kaiser liberty ship shipyard and that at its peak in WWII there were 10,000 people working there and they produced 10 Liberty ships (freighters) a month, but since the channel was so narrow they had to launch the ships stern first instead of the normal side to launch that was preferred. Being that I’m a history buff I stood there pondering what it must have looked like 65 years ago?

The Men’s A and Singlespeed class was called to the line and I did my best to hide in the back of the grid. The cannon sounded and we were off and for the next 1:02 I was completely at my limit and any extra exertion would send me dangerously close to completely blowing. My lack of power was painfully obvious as the singlespeed herd rode over the horizon from me. I’m surprised that my heart didn’t blow out of my chest as I recorded my highest avg. heart rate for a cross rate ever (176avg/184 high) I guess my heart was well rested! The only positive I can report is it seemed that I was really going well in the corners by the fact I was actually making up ground on people. I was also thoroughly enjoying the big jump on the back of the course as I tried to get more and more air on every lap. By screwing around with the jump on the second to last lap, I dropped my chain on a particularly hard landing and lost my place to the only guy I was in front while I struggled to get my chain back onto my singlespeed which was no easy task! All in all this course was better than my initial expectations. The super loose corners allowed for two wheel drifts and slides which were heaps of fun! If you were a good bike handler this course would reward you. It was good to see everybody and now I’m looking forward to the next race!