Patterson Pass RR by Mark Foster-8/7/11-Living in the pain cave

Written by Mark Foster
Race Date:8-7-11
Race Location: Patterson Pass, Tracy, Ca
Class 45+ Cat 4
Racers: 40 +

So those of you who read my report last year on Patterson know that I don’t like this race. I don’t do it because it’s fun; I do it because it’s hard. I managed to talk Tom Rice into doing this, but unfortunately we were in different categories. We met at the Edgewood/280 park and ride at sunrise and made it to registration in an hour. I had plenty of time to warm up. Although we could see the wind howling on top of the pass, it was warm and calm at the start finish. Since cramping can be such a problem at this race, I stocked up with plenty of food, water and enduralites. I was ready to punish myself for a couple of hours. Tom and I slathered on the sunscreen, and we commented on those poor bastards who train out there year round and are missing the trees we’re so blessed with here. Yep, if you’re not careful out there, you could end up frying any exposed skin and look like you’re wearing the team specialized bright red arm and leg warmers.

There are at least forty old guys lined up to take the 9am start. The whistle blows and we meander off at a casual pace. It picks up a little bit on the climb, but it really was tame compared to how it can get in that race. Nice! Maybe it won’t be a sufferfest! Two guys go off the front, but not by much. Having done this race, I know that it would be next to impossible for two guys to get away from a large bunch on the flat rolling stuff. Two years ago, in my first ever bicycle race, I made that mistake and got caught twenty minutes later by a group of dudes I had just smoked up the hill. At any rate, they were only 200 yards out by the top of the hill so it wasn’t a big deal….so I thought at the time.

After the two leaders crest the hill our group of 15 or so are approaching the summit when the motorcycle dude pulls next to us and says, “The pro/1/2 guys are going to catch you, pull over and stop!” I yell at him,”What the f%&k are you talking about? There are two guys off the front. The pros will blow by us on the next climb” He reiterates, “Pull over and stop or you’re disqualified.” Crap! Unfrigging believable! So I stop along with the rest of our field and wait for one minute ten seconds. We let our stragglers catch up, and let the P/1/2 guys by for the descent(which has no turns). The stupid part about it, is that we are way bigger than those guys(they are skinny little bike racers and we’re big paper pushers) so we reel them in on the downhill and they hold us up…more time lost. We come to the second hill and they leave us…of course. So now the dynamics of the race have changed dramatically. We can’t see the guys off the front any more and they have team mates in our pack that won’t do any work to catch them; and in fact screw up any attempt we make at a pace line. So, not wanting to give up, this guy named Patrick and I, along with one of the three Toleo riders took turns pulling the twenty or so racers still left in our draft. We get to the big climb for the second time and the pace is still not bad. A couple other guys help break the howling wind up the climb and I think I see the break away riders, but there are so many broken stragglers from other classes it’s hard to tell. We once again crest the hill and bomb down the backside and one guy gaps us on the descent(my bike is slower this time…weird. Later when I got home I found a slow leak in my front tire and had 50lbs in it. So maybe down to 70lbs during this second lap) Not a big deal, we’ll get him on the climb. He hammered the second climb along with another dude. I should have buried myself and gone with those guys, but there were eight of us so I made the wimpy decision to puss out and work with some others to real them back on the flat. Once again after the top of the hill, Patrick and I took turns pulling, along with one of the Toleo guys….with five or six others in tow. If we could have had just two more guys helping we could have done it. Unfortunately the (now) four guys ahead worked together to hold us off. We reeled them in and were 10 seconds back by the final mile. One of the front four (an MVV guy) blew up in the last mile so we blew by him. Now it was just me and Patrick doing the work. I started cramping(as did he) in that last mile so was praying I could get through this and somehow how off the poachers who had so ruthlessly sat on our wheel the entire race. Patrick faded with 800 yards to go, so I lead into the final turn and out of it on to the final 200 yard finish. I knew this was not the place to be, but if I backed off to let someone by, my legs might not restart. I sprinted with all I had(which wasn’t much) and could feel my legs starting lock up, but could still muster a mediocre sprint. One of the MVV poacher guys(Calvin, I never saw him once the entire race) passed me at the line for fourth. I finished fifth. I got a t-shirt….yipee! After all of the work he did, Patrick got beat in the final sprint by the poachers and ended up tenth or so. Bike racing is hard…mentally and physically. I made some mistakes, but was glad I once again endured this race. Thanks for reading! –Mark F