Bariani Race Report: 45+ 1/2/3/4's By Andrew

Bariani Road Race Report by Andrew
Team: Andrew/Devon/Mark/Chris and John Pauley
Cat: 45+ 1/2/3/4

So it has been a while since I reported on a race and thought I would jump in and give my two cents on Bariani (Zamora) Road Race.

The day started at 4:10am, which, if you did not know, is freakin early. I met up with Mark, Devon and Chris at the Park and Ride in Woodside and off we went. Two hours later we pull into an olive oil plant which is the start of the race. It is about 38 degrees, but at least no rain. We gear up and head to the start.

We are joined by John Pauley and so we have five guys in the field. Safeway has about eight guys and Well Fargo has about eight. This was my first race with 1/2's in the field, all be it old 1/2's (45+), but still. So going in I figured tactics would play a much greater role than they did in the 3/4 races. After spending way to much time reading Internet race reports, I really expected Safeway to throw attack after attack till one stuck. With this in mind I wanted to be in the top five guys in order to catch on to one of those attacks.

So there I sat most the race. Riding 5th wheel or so and wondering, "when is the big attack coming?" Well, there were probably four or five attacks, and I jumped on each one, but all of them seemed half hearted. Once about five or six of us got about a 20 meter gap and I thought we might have something when the motto raced to the front of our group and told us to slow down. It happened to be as we were passing the group that started ahead of us and she was trying to get them to move to the side of the road, but still, I thought that was odd to have happen in a race. Anyway, we were all back together and it looked like that was how it was going to be.

Final lap comes and we hit the one hill. I would say it is about like Sandhill. Not too steep and not too long. The actual hard part of the race is just after the hill. You come to a mile and a half long straight road that is right into the wind. The road surface is similar to how they describe the moon. Full of craters. Between the holes and the rocks on the road, it is a pretty sketchy ride. Some guy goes to the front just after the hill and starts to really drill it. We are strung out at this point and we are moving fast. We make the left turn to the final straight away and pace picks up a bit more. One guy in front of me moves left to avoid something and I go right. About three guys go by me, including Devon. I jump back on the wheel of the guy just in back of Devon. I would say I am about 10th position and Devon 8th. We are 600 or so meters from the line. Not sure what happens next, but guy I am following loses it. Does a summersault in front of me. I veer right to avoid a tumbling bike and rider. By this point we are probably 500 meters from the line and the guys in front of the crash are gone. I soft pedal the rest of the way in and try and catch my breath. A few go by in those final meters and I finish somewhere in the top 15. Devon holds on for a solid 6th or 7th. If I had to be honest with myself, I don’t think I had much of a sprint left in my lungs that last 500 meters and would have maybe held my spot in 8th to 10th. So, in all, felt good and was happy to have felt fine racing with old 1/2 guys.

Just to finish the tale of what happened to the others…Mark flats six miles into the race. He has tubulars and has to walk/hitchhike the last four miles back. Luckily for him his new bike only weighs 13.5 lbs so it is not as rough as it sounds. JP flatted as well and then road the course backwards. I caught site of him a few times going the other way. Chris hung in the pack and rolled in with the group.

Fun race, but not sure I would do this one next year if the road conditions stay the same. They really need to fill in the moonscape to make it a good race.

Andrew

Bariani Race Report: 35+ 4's By Scott F.

Date: 3/27/2011
Race: Bariani RR, M35 Cat 4
Field: ~60
Teammates: Christian
Place: 4th

After a week of minimal riding, I wasn’t sure what to expect today with myself or the weather. Miles, Christian and I drove out to Bariani for an 11:05 start. Upon arrival, we walked to the start - finish line to cheer on our fellow CoreTechs members who would be wrapping up their 8:00 race. What surprised me were the number of riders walking across the finish line with flat tires, or just abandoning the race in general. What had we signed up for !?!?!?!

After chit chatting with the other club members, we went back to the car to get ready for our race, talk strategy, and warm up. Before we knew it, we were scrambling to the start line for our race. As Christian and I rolled to the staging area, we were hurried to the back of the pack that was just about to be sent off. Yep, CoreTechs Cycling was representing by bringing up the rear in style.

We had four laps at 10 miles per lap. The course has one leg with a tail wind, two legs with a strong cross wind, and one leg with a pretty steady headwind. The first lap was a pretty quick pace, or maybe that was because we were bringing up the rear and jockeying for better position.

Second lap was uneventful, just trying to find the groove and settle in. As we came around for the third lap, the pack was separating and we were down to 30 riders. Final lap, we were a group of maybe 20 and had a sizable lead over any chasers behind us.

A few riders made an attempt to break away, and given the strong winds with a few rolling climbs ahead, we let them go thinking they would come back into the fold soon enough. As we hit the base of the final “climb” the moto official announced they had a 25 second lead. Christian and I attacked, and brought one other rider with us. Now we were a group of three, chasing the lead group and putting distance on the remaining competitors. I was under the impression that five riders were ahead of us, and didn’t want to burn all of my matches to bridge the gap and then go into a final sprint of 8. The three of us worked together taking pulls, and lined up for the final sprint.

After finishing the race, turned out only three riders were ahead of us. The other two were lapped riders that were caught by the breakaway group. I ended up 4th for the day.

The field was full of teams with large showings: Pen Velo had 9, Rio Strada had 7, Audi had several. Christian and I had a fun race, rode smart, and finished in the top 10. Not bad for a team of two, that started literally dead last.

Thanks for reading-
Scott

Laura's Cross Country Ski Race report: Kind of...

So, Laura (our sadistic ride leader for our weekend rides) is a cross country ski racer in winter. She was innocently asked; "how was your race this past weekend":

You asked for it.

We left Menlo at 6 pm and arrived in Auburn, where we always stop for gas, in record time.... only to find that 80 was still closed (since 1:30pm!) due to the 45 car pile-up and jack-knifed truck that was hauling liquid hydrogen. It was storming and rumored that 80 would stay shut all night. All motels in Auburn were booked, so we thought maybe we could sneak around via Nevada City and Hwy 20. So drove the extra 30 miles only to find out that it had just closed too. So we resume the motel search and hear repeatedly that everything is booked between Nevada City to Auburn to Roseville, so we better go back to Sacramento (!) So we go back to Auburn to refuel again, and decide to just hide in the van in the neighboring truckers lot! I had my iPad so checked the CalTrans website every so often. At 1:30am, 80 reopens.

So we head up the hill, slow going with chain control the whole way. We arrive at the cabin on Donner Lake at 3:45 am... only to find that our driveway plow guy hadn't come by that night! It took us an hour to shovel the 3' cement-like snow "berm" by the street, as well as the lighter 2' of snow in the driveway to get the van off the street and to get us into the cabin. At 5am it's finally time to call it a night. (I'm always up at about 4:45am midweek to start the day, so it was a loooong day.)

Saturday storms all day, and we pick up our race numbers up at Royal Gorge and ski for all of 30 minutes. The Gold Rush is a 45km race (marathon distance) so we didn't want to overextend on Saturday. (Plus, the weather was abysmal.) We go back to the cabin and spend much of the afternoon shivering out on the deck and preparing our skis with expensive race-wax and fluorocarbons.

Suddenly it's Sunday, and we're back up at 5am and cant even see the van under all the snow that fell overnight. So madly start shoveling, then suddenly realize that 80 has re-closed. Then Mark throws his back out during the shoveling. 80 doesn't open, so the race gets cancelled (partly due to nobody being able to get to the race, and partly due to too much snow to be able to deal with.) There is so much snow that it completely fills in between the side of Mark's van (all the way to the top of the van) and the side of the driveway.

At 4 pm or so, 80 suddenly reopens. (For the 2nd time of the weekend, it was closed for 12 hours straight.) We frantically clean the cabin and close it up, and then frantically shovel again because our plow guy is still apparently MIA.

We finally escape at about 6:15 pm. It's still storming out, and the road is incredibly bumpy... so we thought. We drive up the Donner Lake interchange, get to the chain control guy at 80, and he says "don't you know you have a flat tire???!!!" We never felt it, nor saw it, because of the snow drift in the driveway!

We pull over, unload nearly the entire van to get to the spare tire (and it's STILL storming out), and end up getting the jack totally stuck under the van. It was very cold and windy, and not particularly easygoing since we're stuck on ice and lots of new snow. To make a long story ever-so-slightly shorter, we FINALLY got on 80 at 9pm Sunday night, and arrived home at 2am.

Oh, the things we do for fun.

CCCX Race Report 3-19-11

Report By Mark Foster
Race Date: 3-19-11
Location: Ft. Ord, Monterey, CA
Type: Circuit race, 60 minutes, 4.2 mile laps, rolling
Class: Masters 45+ Cat4/5

So after reviewing the weather, the last thing I wanted to do was drive down to Ft. Ord and race a bicycle in the rain. I needed one more race to upgrade to a Cat 4 and I promised our team I'd get my upgrade by mid March so that I could join them in the 1/2/3/4 Master's race at Bariani on March 27th.

At least I didn't need to do two races. If I was going to skip one, it would be the Open aged(E) Cat 5 race. After the blood bath I witnessed last weekend, no longer having to race that class was a relief to say the least. Also, the E5 race was at 8:30am and the Masters race was at 11:20;the extra sleep is always nice as well.

It was raining really hard when I left the Bay Area, but as I rolled into Monterey it slowed to a drizzle. Then as I got closer to Ft. Ord it had stopped completely....nice!

The race started on time and although the ground was damp, the weather was dry. There were only 15 racers that bothered to show up, less than a third of the previous Ft. Ord Masters race; predicted rain was obviously the cause of the slim field. The 45+ 4/5 Masters did the typical slow start. It was a nice leisurely ride, but I wanted a workout as well, so at the beginning of the second lap, I made the decision to get the race going. I left my hiding spot and hammered for about 3/4 of a loop. I wasn't quite redlining, but close. Nine guys hung on, and now we had a race. One of the Penn Velo riders, Jeff, worked with me on the backside of that loop. Then, he and a couple of other guys continued to push the pace the rest of the way. Much better pace and workout, my plan was coming together. After getting everybody fired up I hid and recovered nicely. I noticed the winner of the last 45 Masters Ft.Ord race, Mark Perry, was hiding as well.

On the final lap things picked up even more leading into the final descent. A Webcor guy took the lead followed by a SJBC guy, then me. I soft pedaled to stay behind them all the way to the final turn. An attack came from both sides and the guy passing us on the left was Mark Perry; so I grabbed his wheel as he came by. He pulled into the lead on the final sprint with me perfectly positioned in his draft. With 100 yards to go I hammered by and took the win and the bottle of wine....nice! Winning a Cat 4 race is a great way to finish up as a Cat 5! -Mark

Snelling: Christian's Podium Race Report

Who: Christian, Cat 4 rider for 7 years
Where: Snelling, California- Outside of Merced about 2 1/2 hour drive.
When: February 26, 2011
Course: 4 laps @ 12 miles each, Mostly flat with some rollers. Closed course
with both lanes up for grabs. Some gradual sandy corners and some teeth rattling
rough roads, Awesome!
Weather: Super sunny, low 50's, light wind, - Snow/ sleet was predicted.
Result: 3rd out of Aprox. 45. (results not posted yet)

Greetings Coretechs,
I'd been looking forward to the Snelling Road Race as our local criteriums
remind what it's like to drive on the LA freeways with agro drivers fighting for
every inch of free space. I wanted sun, scenery, and some gamesmanship.
Snelling provided.
Drove up with an Alto Velo rider (Holger, a Cat 3 Master's rider) after
realizing no Coretech teammates were registered for the afternoon race. We got
lost driving as the direct rodes to the start are closed, so read the race
flyer next time Christian! When we arrived to the local park to get set up, we
looked out over 1000 racers grouped up in teams talking about how they just
killed it in the mornings race and/or handing out advice for
the afternoon racers. The most common questions overheard were, What should I
wear! When did you flat? What happened to you?......
Background. Snow was predicted with temps in the high 30's. So if snow
never showed, sleet was coming down for our 50 mile race. Andrew texted twice
saying he was snowed in (but a great ski day I'm sure) so I was off alone.
Turns out, the sun stayed out, sunscreen was applied to the face, and away we
went with our very own motorcycle escort through town and for the next 50 miles.
We were a group of around 45 middle aged guys with aprox. 10 Wells Fargo
riders dominating the landscape. No other team had more than 3 riders that I
could see so it looked like it was time to form an alliance. No agreement took
shape then I spotted two strong Cal/Giant riders (strawberry guys.) I tried to
work for them a bit but no breaks got out of sight and with the lack of long
hills, everyone was able to chase. I wished for some organized attacking but to
the groups' defense, it was a gorgeous day for a bike ride.
Final lap, last minute, the mob gets strung out. Finishing straight is on a
short hill. I follow the tallest, skinniest guy (recommended) from 15th placed
wheel to a 3rd place finish passing both strawberry guys.

Received a t-shirt and a slight sunburn. The photo shoes the neon arm warmer
bandit....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennv-photos/5480631911/

Bariani Road Race is coming up team. Lets do this!