Spring Hill (Two Rock) Road Race Report

Wow...what an event. It was a race, but seemed to be a bit of a survival fest as well. So let me start from the top.

5:15am, up and listening to the rain. Hmm, well, maybe it is not raining in Petaluma. I am 50/50 on even going. Check the reports on line. weather.com clearly states that there will be no rain till 10am in Petaluma. My race starts at 8:40am. I figure most the race may be dry. I say what the heck and drive up. One hour and 45 minutes later I am in cow country and can barley see through my windshield with all the rain, so much for that report. Temp gage on my car reads 40 degrees. Well, I am here, so what the heck, maybe only 10 people will show up and I will have a good shot of placing.

8:40am, standing in the rain with 65 to 70 other Cat 4 racers. You kidding me? Are these folks nuts? I opted for the Cat 4 Open race (all age Cat 4's). The kid next to me looks about 14 (man I am getting old). They start the race at 8:45am. I am already shivering. I figure, as in most road races, we start off tame and then at some point someone punches it. I can use that start to warm up. I have been hiding in my car for the last 1/2 hour. No such luck. There is an organized team of six up front and four go nuts and ride super hard from the gun up the opening hill (which is about .1 mile into the race). The other two on the team soft pedal and try to slow the other 63 riders down. Now there is a gap. This is minute one!! I jam hard up the hill (about like Sandhill towards Woodside). I am close to getting dropped in the first minute. My legs are screaming, how about a warm up? I would say at least 20 are dropped right there.

The entire race was very fast. The course is all rollers, with about three Sandhill hills. The rain is crazy, never letS up for a second. I am soaked five minutes into the race. I had on a technical undershirt, long sleeve undershirt over that, a long sleeve jersey and then a vest. All soaked. By the second lap it felt like I was carrying around a backpack with all the water I had on. The wind was strong just for good measure. I opted not to use glasses, and could barley see with the rooster tails of water off all the wheels and the rain. About the start of lap two a rider yelled out, "flat". I actually felt jealous of him. We were hammering.

On the second lap there is a long downhill, followed by a hard right turn that then went into the final steep climb on the backside of the course. Since it was so wet, the riders really hit their brakes to make the turn. I was about 20 riders back in the group when we hit that turn. I knew that was a bad spot, but with the road conditions, I was not willing to risk passing on the downhill to gain spots. Well, the first eight guys punched it there. The rest of the group fractured. I was dying but made the second group on the road. We had about 10 guys in our group. The rest of the field was way back. For some reason, only three of us were willing to work and the rest of the group just sat on our wheels. There was some good yelling going on asking others to help us catch back on...all to no avail. The first eight stayed a minute or less in front of us the rest of the race. The finish is up hill. The hill is a bit steep, then flattens and then climbs again. I went at the bottom of the hill and won the sprint to the false flat. To bad the race actually finished mid way up the second half of that hill. I would say five or six passed me on that last bit of climb and I came in somewhere from 12th to 15th out of the 65 to 70.

This was a crazy race environment. Rain, wind and hills, and sharp turns on descents. It was painful, but fun! I will do this race next year, though if it is raining, I think I will pass :)