Knights Ferry Road Race Report by Andrew A. (Feb 2nd 2013)

Cat 1/2/3-45+
84 miles of rolling terrain with one Sandhill and a half "climb" that you do four times (3.5 lap race)
20 rider field
Team CoreTechs: Andrew and Daryoush

For those new to the team and not yet accustomed to my long winded, totally off the mark reports, well, you have now been warned. Below you find something that slightly resembles a race report. These rambles usually turn into psychoanalysis, hyperbole and self serving aggrandizing. Delete this email now, I will not be held responsible for the time you waste reading it.

Like someone who lives abroad for a few years and comes back with a new "accent" to their English (I have not noticed this at all Jerome, congratulations, you withstood the pressure of coming home with a French accent), I am doing my best to remind myself I am a 46 year old man. I want to make sure I don’t accidently incorporate my young friend Mr. Rippey's writing style. For this reason, as I drove to the race I made sure to avoid any purchases of bagels and I certainly did not "bump any Kayne ". I also had my pants firmly around my waist so as to avoid the ass sag jean look. Now, I did have a dew rag on, but was quickly reminded that the look was very hip in about 1988. So I reverted back to my well worn old man style of sweat pants and a sweat shirt. The chicks were digging me.

Daryoush and I drove some silly amount of time to get to a cow pasture in the middle of nowhere. Really, this is not exaggeration. Even the people in Oakdale said this race was in the boonies. Once there, we saw the usual crowd. We acted very cool, gave many head nods and repeated the common saying at this event; "this is just a training race for me. I have not ridden since before Christmas. I am way out of shape." Overhearing our conversations, you would have thought this was a group of guys that accidently met up in a cow pasture, all found they happened to have their bikes with them and decided "what the heck, let's try these things out and see if they still work."

See? Three paragraphs in and I have yet to mention the actual race. I told you, I am not responsible for any of your wasted time, this deep in to the email and it is on you!



Race starts and the 20 of us head off. Daryoush, who I talked into doing this race with me, had too much coffee on the drive out. The caffeine went to his head and the wind vest he wore flapped like a cape. He had caught the infamous bike racer malady that we have all acquired at one point or another; Supermanites. This is a very dangerous affliction, I know, I have had it many times. The symptoms are these: Mental sharpness, light feeling in the legs. The results are disastrous. You see, this affliction comes on in the first laps of races, causing the infected to act in an incredibly aggressive manner. Daryoush must have attacked the field ten times in the first lap. Each time getting about 200 meters out front only to be dragged back. Once back he "soft pedaled" at the front of the pack leading the entire peloton again. At one point I road up and told him, "please save a match or two for the rest of 70 miles we have to do!". I had seen it though, he had that vacant look in his eyes, that look of, "please don’t talk to me mere mortal bike rider, for I am superman and I will destroy this field". All I could do was sit in the group and hope his malady would subside in time for him to survive.

What I neglected to mention was that this was a pretty stacked field of 20 riders. We had one mutant and six or seven DGR's in the field. After Daryoush's tenth attack, mutant (Dirk) attacks. We all watch him go. This is an experienced field and no one wants to sit on mutant for 50 more miles. He leaves us (Déjà vu for me, as I ended my 2012 season with this exact scenario-see the Henleyville race report). Suddenly though, an unexpected thing happens, we all start to drill it and actually work together. This increase causes some of the weaker links to break. Daryoush, recovering from his 10 attacks was sitting at the back at this very moment. The two in front of him crack. He is off the back just as the pack has gone ballistic. He cant swing around the two cracked riders in time and his race is over. He is relegated to a solo ride, cape firmly planted between legs.

We have about ten of us left at this point. The cooperation breaks down as some knucklehead attacks before coming close to catching mutant. Once that happens the cat and mouse games start. Pack slows to 15mph, then attack again, 15mph, attack again and so on. Finally with five miles left we all realize no one is getting away and we start to position for the finish. The finish line was at the top of a hill, probably about the length of 1.5 Sandhills. We ride to the 200 meter to go sign at about 12 mph, all watching each other and bumping shoulders. One goes, and that lights the fuse. We all come from our track stands to full sprint. I have to swing a bit over the yellow line to get around a Sierra Nevada rider and have clear road ahead. I see rider one and two ahead and I have a shot at rider two. I catch him mid crank but I do so as we cross the line, so I get third in the bunch and fourth counting mutant. I win a coveted white t-shirt to commemorate my "just off the podium, first loser" position…sigh.


Back in the car we bump some Kayne and look for a bagel shop.

Warning: Politically Incorrect, a bit offensive and darn funny. Chris Rippey reports from Surf City CX race: December 16th, 2012

The date of the race: Yesterday
The location: Watsonville fairground
A quick course description: three muddy sections, two were off camber downhills, two  required running, flat asphalt section by start finish.
The category you raced: singlespeed A
The number of racers: more then twenty

After getting cash, gas and waiting longer then I wanted to get bagels and coffee (screw you Izzy's bagels, if your don't have salt or chocolate chips bagel then don't take an order for them, assholes.) I headed out to Watsonville with my girlfreind in tow. We bumped Kanye most of the way there. At the race I discovered I had forgot my shorts. I was not going to ruin my best pair of jeans so I was left with either wearing my girlfriends  skinsuit (I don't believe in skinsuits, they are dumb!)  or trying to see if I could rustle up some shorts. I saw Miles and Dave and informed them of my situation and decided to borrow Miles shorts cause Dave looks a little AIDSy to me. The shorts were gross but at least they matched and Miles seems like a guy free of sexually transmitted diseases. I did a warmup lap and the course was muddy like everyone said so I just rode around talking shit to my fellow cx racers and let my warm up and chances of victory to the cx gods. We were called to line up. I didn't know anyone except my buddy Angus and Rick. I told both of them all I cared about accomplishing in the race was beating them. The gun goes off and I ride mid pack. After the first run up I rip Miles' short and spent the rest of the race checking and adjusting my shorts so that my junk didn't hang out. I raced smooth and at a consistent pace. I didn't make any big mistakes. Ben Jacques-Maynes commented, in a shitty tone, that I should be riding on the grass cause it was faster when I rode in the mud so he could pass me(dickhead). I beat Angus and Ric and ended up in eighth place. I got coffee after the race and crashed into another driver as we were both backing out of our parking spots. All in all I had fun but my bumper is all messed up now.

Sad Day - Godspeed Ricky

CoreTechs teammate, Ricky Lucero died Saturday December 8th, 2012 while out riding his bike. I have pasted the email from his wife below. It seems so far that it was a medical issue and not a car or crash that was the cause.

Ricky was a tremendous guy. He had a great sense of humor, was extremely kind and a great teammate to race with. Ricky raced an old steel bike but was still able to win Santa Cruz crit in 2011 and be a factor in many other races. After much cajoling we convinced him to upgrade (he was super strong and a great rider and deserved a better bike) and he had just purchased a new SL4 to race in 2013. Hard to express the shock and sadness that this would happen to a young guy, who was so strong. Ricky will be missed tremendously.

Ricky leaves behind two boys ages 14 and 11 and his wife Michele. 

Godspeed Ricky.

Andrew

From Ricky's wife:

It's with my heaviest of hearts that I let everyone know today I lost the love of my life. My beloved husband Ricky of 16 yrs died while on his bike today. Details are unclear. He lost consciousness while on his bike and was unresponsive by the time the paramedics got there. We are all in shock, denial and grief. We are all thinking of happy memories with family right now. Please keep Ricky in your thoughts & prayers.

Michele

Henleyville RR-Sept. 2012-Cat 45+ 1/2/3

Henleyville Road Race
73 miles
Andrew, Daryoush, JP (report written by Andrew)
Cat 45+ 1/2/3 Report:

My hamstrings were starting to cramp, my knees hurt, and my butt was sore. I am not sure I am going to make it. This was hard! I am three hours in and still have another hour or more to go. Crap. No turning back now. I put my head down and concentrate. It’s no good, I can’t do it. I turn to Daryoush and ask him to pull off at the next exit. I have to take a leak.

This is a crazy commute. Daryoush and I were on our way to the Henleyville Road Race. A 73 mile slightly rolling but mostly flat race consisting of four laps over chip sealed, vibration inducing roads. The drive there took us slightly over four hours. This is a commitment to crazy, not just a deviation into it. I have raced 26 times this year, not counting the two tri’s I also jumped in. I understand that there is some issue here. I am sure if you dig (some may say you don’t need to dig that far) you will find some major personality flaw that drives this sort of behavior. I have enough self-awareness to know this, but not enough to do anything about it. So there it is; 28 races for the 2012 season and I am still bummed out that there is no more racing to do.

I think we have found the real reason I started this team. It was to find other crazies like me. The big benefit is that it normalizes my behavior. When I talk to non-cyclists, they seem to view my stories with a strange look of confusion, pity and disgust. I am asked why I do this, why I want to drive four plus hours one way to flog myself in some backwoods location. It is a hard question to answer. I tend to smile, nod and look for someone else to talk too. So now you know why I started this team and why you are on it. I don’t get asked this question and even more, I get guys who volunteer to drive with me. Now this is why I love this group.

Daryoush, John Pauley and myself lined up for the 45+ 1/2/3 race. Mike McLaughlin and Mark Dames were racing a bit later in a different category. We had a great time Friday night talking biking over some beers and margaritas. We figured that made the most sense for pre race hydration. Next morning we met up at the Best Western's complimentary food bar to carbo load for our race. Take note new racers, this is how you fuel up to road race.

Regarding the race, well, to sum it up, race started, some guys tried to break (including Daryoush in a two man break) but none were getting anywhere. Then Dirk (one of the five or six mutants I have mentioned in previous reports) had enough of the chit chat and road away from us. Sure, there were still 50 miles to race, but Dirk wanted some alone time. Who were we to question what a mutant wants? So, we acquiesced and watched him seek solitude up the road. He quickly vanished and from what I was later told, crossed the line in first place. Nice racing with you Dirk, certainly enjoyed those deep conversations we were able to have in the first 15 minutes.

Now that he was gone, the rest of us could play bike racers. We did our best at pretending to break away from the group and then being pulled back. We did some mock chasing and had brilliant conversations. Then at the start/finish line with one lap to go, Daryoush had had enough of this silly game playing and decided to flat. He soon regretted his decision though, tried to fix his flat and chase back on. He never did make it all the way, but he did enjoyed his time alone and was able to take in the magnificent scenery.

Coming into the final three miles we were jockeying for position. With two miles left a kindly motorcycle ref stood in the middle of the road and held up a hand and the race. Yep, 71 miles done with two to go and we all took a 10 minute time out. Guess some poor soul in a race in front of us took too close a look at the pavement while finishing and was now getting a very expensive ride to the local Corning hospital. After the time out, the ref lined us up. He reminded us that we had two miles left and then said, "go". One Davis rider took off. Amazingly he thought he could sprint for two miles. He must have still been in game play mode. Another rider chased and I chased him. Davis rider, surprise, blew up with about a mile left. Then the rider in front of me tried to go and I went with him. Anyway, we got to 500 meters to go and we all sprinted and eventually crossed the finish line. I took second in the sprint and third place in the race and thus earned another coveted poorly designed Velo Promo t-shirt.

It was a fun day in the sun and a great way to end the road season.

Thanks for participating and being part of this team. It has been a blast this year to ride with you guys.

Ken's Mt. Tam Race Report-Cat 3

Mt Tam (starting in Stinson Beach)


12 miles, 2000 feet

Cat 3: 1st out of 16

Course: 4 miles of flat on Hwy 1, 4 miles of up, then 4 miles of up/rollers



I pre-rode the course on Wednesday which was pivotal. The rollers at the end were brutal and that's where I knew the race would be won or lost (and it was).

I also warmed up for about 30 min and put in a long, 5 min, hard effort. I think this also helped.



Flat 4 - the group went at an honest pace so i knew our total time wouldn't be hampered (like it was last week at fremont)



Up 4 - We go over a cattle grate and everyone is going crazy to get a front position as it turns up (think small narrow roads like stage). One guy sprints and everyone stays together. Then it slows down. We're 4-wide in about 4 lines. I'm in line 2 and I say "excuse me" to the 2 guys in front of me. They converge and pinch me. Then I say it again, "excuse me" (i figure they can't ignore kindness). We're going at an medium pace as everyone is trying to figure out what's going to happen. We're only 0.5 miles in if even that. Not far. So, on the 2nd ask they let me through. I stand up and push the pace hard (but not so hard that i can't react if someone jumps me). Before I know it I have 10 meters, then 20 meters. So I push it much harder (like an OLH PR ride). 50 meters. Then a Taleo guy catches me (Hanns Detlefsen). I ask him if he wants to work together, he says yes, so we do. Another guy catches (Bill Laddish) but only for 30 seconds until we drop him again. Then we're on our own - can't see any chasers - so I know we have it in the bag.



4 miles rollers (the "Seven Sisters") - after 0.5 miles of flat/descent through redwoods, we open up to an exposed and long climb. The first 'sister'. Hanns accelerates and I can not hang. Rather than burn myself, I let him go. Through the next 4 sisters I just keep him in my sights, around 50-60 meters out. On every sister I gain some distance. On the 6 or 7th sister I give everything I have and before I know it I'm going like 2x his speed up the sister and just fly by him. I'm so surprised at this point that I don't know what to do. I just put my head down and hammer. The rest is flat/rolling and I just hammer. We only had ~1k to go. But before I know it I'm gone and beat him by 16 seconds.



one final note: Peter Stetina (garmin, did well at rode giro this year) rode with the p1/2. He won. :) (but it wasn't 'official' bc he's not 'allowed' to race since he's a UCI rider)

CCCX Sept 16th 45 1/2/3 & 35+ Open-Andrew's report

CCCX Circuit Race Sept 16th.


Sometimes, the clouds part and a ray of sunshine can peak through. Sunday at the final CCCX crit/circuit race, that ray touched the CoreTechs team.

We had a great crew come out. Steve Stewart returned from an almost year long sabbatical with his Bundyesc van full of libations. John Pauley, Tom Rice, Mark Foster, Mark Dames, Scott Fairman (Bear Valley Scott), Dave Puglia, Daryoush and myself also saddled up to race. I will leave both Mark's to impart their race stories (they were both good!). My story was one with no drama and no miscues. This made for a fantastic day but is sure crappy for story telling. In trying to think about how to tell this story in a semi-entertaining way I have struggled. Adversity certainly makes for better entertainment. So, to end my struggle, get something out and bore the hell out of you, I will wrap this up quickly.

The 45+ Cat 1/2/3 race had a few good riders but none better than Kevin Klein. I have noticed this year that there is a group of seven or so riders in Northern California that are just mutants. They are at a racing level that I am not able to attain. They can solo off the front, early in the race and stay away. You can't go with them, you can't do anything but watch them go. I attempted to go with one of these mutants at Dunnigan, and if you have read that race story (scroll through our blog or FB page for that if you have not read), it turned out ugly for me. I am slow to learn lessons, but not a total nitwit. So, when Kevin attacked with six laps remaining (about 5:30 6 min per lap) in this race, I let instinct take over and I jumped with him. After he yelled at me a few times to pull through, which I did, it occurred to me that I was in over my head. Like I said, slow to learn, but eventually, I get the fact that someone is beating me over the head with a 2x4 and I adjust. We still had 5 laps to go, and I pulled the plug. I knew if I kept letting Kevin hit me in the head, I would be dead before the race ended. So, I drifted off the back and let Kevin ride away solo.

Back in the pack, we were now all racing for second. Kevin soloed off the front for his five laps and put time on the bunch each lap. Yep, a mutant that way. Coming into the sprint, which was a 300 meter slight uphill into a head wind, a rider (Dean Knudsen from Don Chapin Team) broke early (about 800 meters from the line). He had Robert Pasco (Safeway) on his wheel and I jumped to catch them. He road so hard that we got a gap on the field. Coming into that final 300 meters he started to sputter and Robert jumped. I was on his wheel. I came out of Robert's draft with 50 meters to go and made it to his front wheel when we crossed the finish line. He got second and I took third. Still, I was pretty happy being on the podium with Klein and Pasco.

An hour later and I am at the start line of the 35+ open (all categories) race. Kevin did not enter this race, but he was replaced by a younger more mutant version named Matt Carino. In case you are not familiar with him, he is 39 and won the National Championships for the 35-39 age group at Bend, Oregon last week. A month before he won the California State championships. He is a top Master's mutant.

Race starts with an attack from Dean (Don Chapin) and the pace is very high from the gun. Sheesh, not sure I am ready for this. I hang on but about half the field is off the back already. Carino bridges up to Dean. I turn to Duane Coughlin (Irondata) and comment, "well, there goes the race." Sure enough, Carino drops Dean and solos the entire race. Final lap is similar to the first race with a rider taking off early. This time though there is no gap and the eight or so of us left all are in a line. We come into the final hill and with 200 meters to go I sprint up the right. I have enough speed to hold it to the line and take first of the mere mortals and second in the race.

Honorable mentions: Mark Foster was in my group at the 35+ race and did a great job of leading the pack for a few laps at the end to keep attacks at bay. He helped me set up my sprint and CoreTechs was the only team with more than one rider in the final group. Very fun! Also have to give Rick Morgan from SJBC some credit. He was in the Kevin Klein break with me and also had the good sense to drift back to the pack. He then led the 45+ race a few laps and kept the pace high and safe. Good riding by both

We finished off the day at the Bundy van with Steve providing some stiff cocktails, which led to massive over estimations of all our cycling abilities and some good laughs. A great way to finish off the CCCX series and for some, the road season.

Andrew

Winters RR story from August 25th, 2012

"There is something wrong with you."

I have heard this most my life, but it has taken me almost 46 years to actually agree. Not sure why, but I love this stuff. What is wrong with me you ask?


• I love being up when it is still dark at 4:20am getting ready for a race

• I love the drive out with the fellas and talking about the race and life.

• I love the drive back and doing as Tom calls it "bench racing". A whole lot of "I could haves and should haves"

• I love the feeling after a super hard ride. Kind of like you just finished finals and now you can party.

• I love writing this immensely self serving and dorky race reports

• And most of all, I love the feeling of the screaming leg pain while riding hard and every now and then causing pain while drilling it.

I suspect the majority of you reading this have similar feelings as I do (though probably not the bullet about writing such silly race reports). So, I would say there is something wrong with all of us. And so, at Winters this past Saturday, a bunch of people with something wrong with them all showed up to race together. Like a Star Trek convention, complete with silly costumes, mythical battle plans and secret handshakes we took the start line. Battleship CoreTechs brought along a Platoon of Tom, Mark, Ricky Lucero, John Pauley, Dave Puglia, Christian, Alan Takahashi, and myself-Andrew.

As battle commenced, we were attacked within the first five miles. This battle was due to last 72. Luckily for starship CoreTechs, our early break designate, Tom Rice, covered and joined the attack. There were four away. We were then allowed to sit in and marshal are troops. Soon we were upon the first outside threat (a hill the size of Hudard park climb-5 minutes in length). The pace to this point was high and climb fairly hard. A few were hit with leg meltdown and were heard yelling: "Scotty, I need more power". Unfortunately, the response of "Captain, this is all the power she's got" came from the leg room and thus their ships were out of the fight.

As we crested the first threat, Tom came back to us. This left three up the road with no member of our ship present. We were thus obligated to add our fuel to the other federation members not up the road. We sent two to the front to help with the chase. We did not expect this chase to last long, but the front three were surprisingly strong and put up a good fight. Finally, as we returned to our main obstacle, we were able to subdue the front three. About 15 minutes later, another attack occurred. We had our shields ready though, and were able to place a CoreTechs member in that attack, thus changing it to a offensive mission. This group had eight present (1 CoreTechs, 1 Third Pillar, 1 Make a Wish, 1 Davis, 2 Taleo, 2 Wells Fargo) and all Federation members had a representative. This was the final attack mission of the day.


The Fed members worked very well together with everyone taking strong pulls at the front in a nice, even rotation. In no time, the peloton was out of site. As we approached the nemesis obstacle for the last time, an attack within the group occurred on the bottom slope. The pace went ballistic and gap between Make a Wish, Davis and Wells Fargo took place. Slowly, CoreTechs reeled them back. As we hit the final switchback, the group was down to five. Both Taleo and Third Pillar blew. We started again working together to make sure that the missing three did not make it back.

With 2.5 miles to go, cramps started to set in. Left leg started to perform independently of body. Arch, calf, and groin all rejected doing anything more. A call went out for help but it went unanswered. As CoreTechs rolled through the rotation, Wells Fargo attacked. Two went with him. CoreTechs was not able to respond. Left leg had seized. Second Wells Fargo just sat on CoreTechs and would not help. Internal conversation: "Noooo". Then cramps eased, power returned. Thoughts changed to, "is it possible to catch front three or should CoreTechs concentrate on getting 4th place and beating Wells guy on his wheel". Chips all in, power down.

Full power and the front three returned to view. We were closing but Wells was getting a free ride. As we got a bit closer, Wells jumped to bridge. CoreTechs jumped to catch his wheel but it turns out only 3/4 of him made the move. Left leg decided to remain seated and for good measure punish the other three quarters for trying to go without him. Wells made the bridge and CoreTechs got a good view of it. Sigh.

Battle was done. Place was confirmed as 5th. A fitting for the convention, mustard yellow t-shirt with poor graphics was won by the team.

After the convention we gathered for lunch and a fun time of "bench racing". Great time, lots of fun. Battleship will be in shop for fine tuning and repairs. Expect to see its return at CCCX on Sept 16th. Could use a full Company, so those held in reserve, give it some serious thought. Season is over in September….for now…beam me up Scotty.