Tom and Mark's Berkeley Hills RR Report-5/13/12

Written By Tom Rice (with Supplemental by Mark Foster below)
Where – Berkeley Hills Road Race in Orinda, CA
When – May 13, 2012
Race - 45+ Cat 1,2,3 - 60+ Racers
Stats – 52 miles in 2.7 laps on country roads around San Pablo Reservoir
Mark Foster, Daryoush Paknad and I are the CoreTechs riders in this race
I finish well off the back of the pack

Our race is scheduled to start at 7:45 AM. So, Mark, Daryoush and I agree to meet at the Edgewood Road Park-n-Ride for a 5:45AM departure in my big pickup truck. I pack the night before but I still have to get up at Oh-dark-thirty for a good breakfast. (From Kate: "Really, 4:30AM? I can't believe you're going to get up at 4:30 on a Sunday to go for a bicycle ride." We racers might be just a little insane.)

All is well as Mark, Daryoush and I get to Orinda an hour before the start. But, there are a couple of logistical issues: 1. The lines for the porta-pottys are really long and 2. We have to pin on TWO numbers instead of the normal one number. As my frequent readers know, pinning numbers is not my forte but I respond to this unexpected challenge with aplomb. Oh, and it is cold. The temperature when we arrive is 51 degrees and everyone is fretting about what to wear. I decide on my winter kit even though the forecast saying it should be well into the 60's by the time we finish. It is overcast, I'm a sissy and I don't like to be cold.

In spite of these immense challenges, we're all ready to go with plenty of time to get to the start. But, we don't have time for a good warm-up. Daryoush speculates that, at this race, we don't really need a warm-up, I get to the start line way early and Mark is doing laps in the parking lot...

... not a direct quote but here is a synopsis of our pre-race briefing: "The roads are rough but you guys have ridden rougher so be careful. The Yellow line rule is in effect so don't go over the yellow line or you will be disqualified. Try not to crash or do anything stupid. Pay attention to the referee on the motorcycle. At my whistle, go. TWEET."

The first few kilometers are neutralized behind the motorcycle so we slowly spin out to the main part of the course. We get a chance to begin warming up the old legs before the action really gets going. This is good because, we know the race will be hard. The course is challenging with over 4,000 total feet of climbing and we are competing against the strongest and most experienced Masters racers in northern California. We have our work cut out for us.

The motorcycle referee blows his whistle to release the pack for actual racing and immediately a lone rider goes off the front. No one chases. In fact, the pace is quite pleasant and all of us get a chance to get fully warmed-up. By the time we pass the finish line for the first time, the gap between the lone rider and the pack is three minutes. I'm not worried though. There are a number of strong teams who will, in order to win the race, work to chase this guy down. It is not up to CoreTechs to manage this solo breakaway attempt. (See? I'm learning!)

When we get into the hills, there are a few half-hearted attempts to form breakaways but they are not serious and the pack reels in each one pretty quickly. The pace has picked up quite significantly. So, I get myself positioned near the front of the pack where I can watch for any dangerous attacks.

I'll remind you here that this is my first race after upgrading to Cat 3. So, at this point in the race, I'm quite pleased with my performance. I'm riding well, managing my position well and I'm easily climbing with the faster guys in the pack. Funny how quickly things can change...

As we race through our second lap, a couple of riders attack and get off the front. Shortly, a couple more join them, and then a couple more. There are now six or seven riders off the front and the pack is not chasing. I'm boxed in about 10 riders back from the front of the pack and I'm worried that the race is getting away from us. Lots of teams have riders in the breakaway and if CoreTechs is not in that break, or if we don't reel in the break, we have no chance to compete for the podium. So, as the road abruptly narrows then gets wider again, I find an opening and I make an attack to bridge up to the break. It is a good attack, I get a gap and I'm gaining on the break. After a couple of minutes I feel a strong presence behind me... I look back to find the whole pack strung out, single file on my wheel.

So, I let up. No one passes me. The pack is still not going to chase and the break is again starting to increase their gap. I decide I'm not letting this happen. Still on the front, I do my best Jens Voigt impersonation and amp up the pace again. Over a few minutes of very high effort, pull the pack up to within a few seconds of the breakaway group. As the breakaway riders look back and find the pack closing on them, cooperation disintegrates and they give up. Now, as I fall back into the pack to recover, a Cat 1 rider comes up to give me some heartfelt advice. He is perturbed that I've chased the break down by myself and he is vociferous in letting me know his frustration. I offer that my team has no rider in the breakaway and that I was the guy to preserve our chances in the race. Perturbed Guy says that it's not my job and one of the other stronger teams should be doing that work. I ask him if his team has anyone in the break and he says he is racing solo and he just feels that he wants things to "evolve properly" and that everyone does the "right thing". None of this makes any sense to me so I simply dismiss the whole exchange. My goal is achieved, the pack is all together, and we settle down to a pace at which I can recover.

Now, this is where I make my rookie mistake: Before we cross the finish line on each lap, there is a feed zone. The feed zone is at the beginning of a climb called "Papa Bear" - 7% for 1,500 meters and at race pace, it is a very tough climb. At this feed zone, I make a decision to get a packet of Hammer Gel down my gullet. I assume the feed zone as a place where the pace will mellow as riders get water or food. I am wrong.

While I'm focused on my delicious Montana Huckleberry gel, the pack begins the climb and an aggressive attack is made with the pack responding in earnest. The pack is going full tilt and I'm completely caught out and I get gapped. Mark is nearby and I yell some encouragement at him but I've not fully recovered from my earlier effort. I can't close the gap. Mark makes it but I get dropped and I finish the last 10 miles solo.

Completing the race, I have some time to contemplate the ride and events. It seems unexpected but I've really had fun. I was a significant factor influencing the race and I proved I'm worthy of riding at this level. My confidence is soaring. Oh yeah, and it stayed overcast and cold for the whole race, so my choice of clothing was perfect!

Thanks for reading!


Tom Rice
Bicycle Racer
CoreTechs Cycling Team
Sponsored by CoreTechs Staffing, Mobius Fit and Ironkey, Inc.

Berkeley Hills Supplemental by Mark Foster:


The first time up the hill wasn’t that bad. As you guys know, I had that weird “overtrained” thing about a month ago. I recovered from that and have no problem redlining my heart. Now I’m “undertrained”, which is way better than “overtrained”. With that said, this is my first road race for a couple of months and for me anyway, this race had really hard moments, but then time to recover. I knew I wasn’t that strong yesterday, so tried to “hide” as much as I could. Tom’s bridge attempt was heroic. It seemed to be minutes long, caused the field to string out, and definitely dropped some people. I wish that as soon as he was caught, he pulled over. He REALLY didn’t want the break to get away. He didn’t realize Klien and Reeder were still in our group. We’ll never know, that break may have succeeded without Tom’s effort. At any rate, the hill was shortly after that. Knowing I was not climbing well yesterday, I took the lead on the second lap between mama bear and papa bear and led into the climb; trying get as much of a lead as I could without working that hard. Just as planned, the group passed me about halfway up or earlier as the wheels started to come off of the cart. When we approached the top of the hill, the rubberbands in my legs were getting stretched to the limit. A gap formed. I hear Tom yell some encouragement, but the frustration and hypoxia are too great to actually comprehend what he said. All I knew was….. he was on my rear wheel….keep pulling. Daryoush had passed me at about 2/3 up the hill…with the brunt of the front pack. I crest the hill and look back. There are lots of guys off the back….including me and Tom. I keep my head down and dig as deeply as I can over the hill and down the other side. I pull for a couple hundred yards, look back and see four guys with me. We weren’t climbers, but this group can hammer. I’m with Pat Brigg, Pat Tofoyo and three others. We get down to business and trade pulls.( As I peel off the front of this chase group for the first time to recover, I fully expect to see Tom in that group. He wasn’t. He told me afterwards he was literally three bike lengths back as we crested the hill and he stayed there for a long way, but couldn’t quite close the gap. He said the next group that he waited for, and went with, didn’t have the horsepower to bring back the pack.) The pack comes back to our chase group of six and we catch back on after a few miles of hammering together. I sit in at this point and just survive. I finish the race with the pack up that final hill….near the back of the pack. The results aren’t posted so it’ll be interesting to see how many of the original 65 got spit out the back. Daryoush passes me again up the final hill so he was ahead of me, but none of us finish in the top ten. As I was suffering up the final climb of the race I was thinking, ”I don’t think I want to race Pescadero!”. The good news is that pain is something you can’t really remember, which is why we keep racing.– Mark F.