Christian's Wente RR 35+ 4 Report

Christian
Wente Road Race 4/30/11
Masters 4 35+
Apox 45 miles, 3700 ft climbing, 3 laps
Finish 19 out of 100

Hi all. Just finished the Wente Road Race in Livermore. I had an awesome race and a great time considering I've been sick for the past 3 weeks. Our pack stayed together most of the race with separation happening on a 4 minute climb with "groupo compactness" after the descent. The technical descent by the way allowed anyone to make up considerable time if one ignored the intimidating walls of hay on the hairpins (think descending Stage Road over by San Gregorio/Pescadero.) A medevac helicopter stopped all the fields on the last lap, landing in an open meadow on the other side of the hay bail wall. This helicopter put the race into perspective and fortunately our field was left relativley unscathed.
In the last 10 minutes of the race, I went off the front twice for a couple of minutes with no one bridging up, got reabsorbed both times, finished my 5th water bottle, and secured a 19th place victory after being passed by 14 skinnier riders. A perfect day that ended up with 2 trips to the bakery (oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies/ sticky bun.)
CoreTechs rider, Ken also road this race, finishing 6th in the cat E4's without even finishing his one water bottle. Congrats! I could of used him as muscle in my old man category as I was being harassed by Pen Velo over the Scott's defection to our glorious team. Cat's Hill in 2 weeks, see you there, Christian