Mark Foster's Master's State Championship race 45 to 49 report

Written by Mark Foster
Race Date: 8-14-11
Class: 45-49 Open
Ditance: 54 miles(12 laps)
Riders: 50+
Location: Ft. Ord, Monterey, CA

So I had one other team mate in this race, Devon Joos. We meet near De Anza College and get to Ft. Ord with plenty of time to warm up before our 2:05 start. After we register I get a call from Liz and she says, “Try not to be mad. You left your gear bag by the front door” Oh crap! What a moron I am! Well at least I had my helmet and shoes so I could still ride. Devon had a spare kit and Tom had some extra gloves…I was fine. So now I’m humming my new theme song, you know, that one from the wizard of OZ?…”If I only had a brain!”

Devon and I line up mid-pack when the whistle blows. Immediately there is an attack off the front of six to eight guys. Oops, missed that one. We hammer after them right away. So the pace is brisk. By lap 3 we’re down one minute ten seconds. By lap four were down One minute thirty seconds. I go to the front of our pack and pull for over a mile and start flicking my elbow…to no avail. I look back at the Morgan Stanley guy on my wheel and say, “You’re not going to help are you?” “Nope”. He had a guy in the break. I look over my shoulder and scream, “someone friggn’ help me!” Then a guy came to my rescue along with several others. We were moving again. Next lap we had cut twenty seconds off of the breakaway…down to one minute ten. Nice, we were reeling them in. Then, one by one, guys from the break blew up and came back to the peloton. Now they were only thirty seconds ahead and there were only two out front: Dirk Hemley and another guy. Then there were only five or so laps to go and we had reeled in the final two. I had lost one of my water bottles through the bumps, and had finished the other one so my mind started to focus on getting water from the neutral zone. I drifted back to mid pack and grabbed a bottle as the pace picked up and it got strung out into a single file hammer. The pack was shattered! I couldn’t see the front very well until we rounded the back corner and it looked like we were reeling in backmarkers from the other race and Devon was leading….and gapping the field. I thought, what the heck is he doing? Then I realized: there was another attack that broke away and Devon was trying to bridge the gap by himself….crap! I was in the wrong place at the wrong time to help. He had close to one hundred yards on us and was about fifty yards back from the break…he didn’t make it. I felt stupid, had I been there, I could have maybe helped bridge the gap. It took me another lap to work my way back to the front of the peloton and now there were two laps to go. I stayed at the front with Devon and he said to me with half a lap to go, “we might as well just hammer.” So we did. I was leading the peloton over the last hump before the descent to the finish. I fully expected an attack at this point and was ready to grab the rear wheel of the two Morgan Stanley guys who passed me on my left. I powered as hard as I could when my left cleat ripped out of the pedal and I went careening out of control to the right. It was good thing those guys got me on the left. However I almost took out Devon. As I regained control of my bike, Devon blows by me on the right and says, “nice save!”. Then as I’m floundering to get my cleat back in the pedal, everyone is blowing by me like I’m chained to a post. I hear a crash behind me. Remember the “Don’t be that guy” commercials? Well, I was that guy. I guess as the pack all passed me. I finally get my foot back in the pedal and I’m in dead friggin last place, and out of touch with the pack. I ride as hard as I can and catch and pass a few stragglers in the final few hundred yards. I’m totally pissed and completely embarrassed. I thought I was going to pull off a top ten and beat some fast guys, but instead I almost take out the entire field and finish nearly last! I’ve never had my shoe pull out on a training ride or in a race…ever! I didn’t check the results, but I finished in the way back. Devon didn’t check his result either, but said he didn’t win the peloton sprint(I’m not sure he even tried. He must have been fried after that noble attempt to bridge a gap up to a bunch of former national champs). Oh well, there’s always next year! –Mark F.