Tom Rice's Patterson Pass Road Race Report-8-7-11

Tom Rice's Report
Patterson Pass Road Race
Saturday August 7, 2011
Men's 35+ Cat 5, 16 riders plus or minus
Two 24 mile laps on a climber's course with three climbs, 1st difficult, 2nd medium, 3rd hard enough to hurt you before the finish line
I was the only CoreTechs rider in this race
2nd Place in a breakaway of 5 riders

The very long version:
Mark Foster talked me into riding this race although his approach was to tell me how much suffering I would experience… But somehow, he convinced me and I'm glad I did it!
Driving out to the race on 580 was enlightening. Looking out over the pass at the wind farm, fans whirling and thinking, "There's gonna be a lot of wind." I was right. Another significant consideration is the instruction we got before the race started. From the race director, "Do not work with the other race groups or you will be disqualified."
The race starts out with a very short flat then directly into the first climb. We're not going too fast and I'm riding at the front until we get to the climb. The winds crossing from left to right hit hard blowing the pack around and making it very difficult to keep a good line. The front runners, including me were assimilated back into the field. I made my way back up to the front at mid climb and that was good because after the descent and on the second climb, a few riders began to gap the field. At the summit of the second climb, I bridged to the break and we put the hammer down. This section is rolling and mostly we had a strong tail wind. Did I say we put the hammer down? Because we did. I put in a long, mostly descending tailwind pull in my 53-12 spinning as fast as I could.
At about the ¾ point of the first lap, our break of 5 riders passed the Cat 4 35+ pack that started 5 minutes in front of us. After the start finish line, beginning our second lap a few minutes later (still in the flats) we passed the Women's 1,2,3 pack that started 10 minutes before us. We were flying! Also, on the third climb on the course, a couple of riders from our pack had bridged up to our breakaway.
This is all significant because as we started climbing and heading back into the very strong head/cross winds, both of the packs we had passed caught back up to us. I don't think they realized how hard we were working to maintain pace in the wind because as they swarmed past us, both of these packs slowed down dramatically. The head winds were very strong. But, our breakaway did not want to get caught by our Cat 5 race pack so we moved back up to the front and crested the summit clear of both packs and also dropped the riders from our pack who had bridged on the previous climb.
I made an aggressive descent out front but not really putting out any watts, resting for the next climb. At the bottom of the descent, the Cat 4 pack caught us again, pulled in front of us and then slowed down. Again. Our breakaway of 5 riders was tangled up with this pack for the entire second climb. This caused confusion because it was hard to distinguish between riders from our race and riders from the Cat 4 pack. So, one of my breakaway companions got clear. I gave chase. It took me a while but I caught the miscreant after another aggressive descent and hammering through the initial rolling flats. Unfortunately, I had the entire Cat 4 pack closing on me including the remainder of our breakaway. I had thought it would just be the two of us to the finish but our breakaway of five was still intact.
Finally, the referee following the Cat 4 pack on moto took control of the situation and we got clear of these supposedly faster guys for the remainder of the race.
Now I had done more than my share on lap 1 pulling the breakaway and I decided I'd work a little less in preparation for the sprint at the finish. I decided which riders were still strong and which were beginning to fade. But, it's a bike race so I was wrong. On the last climb (which I barely survived!) one of the guys I thought would be strong blew up and dropped off the back. We were now four and I chose to be fourth wheel through the right hand turn on the finish straight.
I'm well positioned and trying to be patient as I decide when to begin my sprint. I'm worried that I'm too late but make my jump. I easily pass two of the three in front of me and I'm gaining fast on the guy in front… I'm beginning to fade but he is fading too. I get next to him and give my bike a massive throw at the line. Neither one of us knew who won. I didn't know for sure and the other guy thought I had won. But, the results come out and I'm second. Maybe if I had started my sprint a few meters earlier… but who knows, I was fading at the line.
I'm very pleased with my performance in this race. I rode well, made good decisions and was confident through-out. This was a hard race but it was fun!
Thanks for reading!