Berkeley Hills Road Race Report

The Webcor/Alto Velo Men's Elite Team raced a NorCal favorite this weekend, Berkeley Hills RR, which features a succession of tough rolling hills known as "The 3 Bears." We fielded a solid crew, rode a good tactical race, and got 2 in the top ten against a very competitive field. Our own Ted Huang worked hard all day in a breakaway to finish on the podium in 3rd. Below is his report.

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Berkeley Hills Road Race
12 May 2007
Team: Greg "Drakester" Drake, Dominic Giampaolo, Jono Coulter, Tore "The Toreminator" Nauta, Rob MacNeill
Results: 3rd for Ted, 7th for Tore, "Field finish" for Greg, Jono, and Dom, Rob DNF'd

This edition of Berkeley Hills sported some very good local competition in the form of a large Cal Giant Team (8+), Team Kona (one rather tall Barry Wicks), and a plethora of other good local riders including Dan Halloway and Eric Riggs (eventual winner) of VMG.

The team plan was pretty basic. Don't initiate much, but definitely follow moves with Cal Giant riders. Riders to watch: Jesse Moore, John Hunt, Chava, Chris Lieto (about 1/3 of the Cal Giant Team), Barry Wicks (hard to miss), Eric Riggs, this crazy strong Mengoni rider (Blanco?), and ourselves.

Hmm. I just realized that I'm a poor listener or just don't follow instructions well, or both. In retrospect, I didn't do either.

From the gun, Patrick Briggs attacked solo. This actually caused the peloton to ride pianissimo for the first lap until the climbs where Barry expectedly rode really hard at the front, making life miserable for the rest of us. On San Pablo Dam Rd, Jonathan of CVC attacked. Being rather nearsighted (okay, was sitting at the back), I thought we had missed a move with another Cal Giant going up the road. So UNINTENTIONALLY, I initiated an attack, and a Cal Giant club rider? went with me. Very soon, Ken Akita of Organic Athlete bridged up.

At this point, I need to point out that we rode through the aftermath of what appeared to be a very serious accident, where junior rider took a tumble at high speed. Cars were stopped and I actually saw Pat Briggs riding backwards on the course to help out. Pat is an EMT and, while off the front, selflessly stopped his race to see if he could help. Wow!

Back to this more trivial race report... Initially we shared the work, but once we took the right onto Alhambra Valley Rd, it pretty much became just me, due to the cross tailwind and false flats. Once we hit the climbs, I rode tempo up Mama Bear, before dropping them on the plateau to the next set of rollers.

I rode steady hard up Papa Bear and finally caught Jonathan at the right turn onto San Pablo Dam Road. Perfect timing, because we faced a raging headwind. Jonathan was impressive , however, we were soon caught by a group of 8 or so containing Barry Wicks, something like 5 Cal Giant riders (Chava, Chris Lieto, John Hunt, Oswaldo?, my two breakmates I had previously dropped, Eric Riggs, and Blanco (Mengoni rider). Obviously this was the race, and I braced myself for another 2.7 laps of joyous fun.

I'll skip the next details, but let's just say that for the next couple of laps, Barry did most of the driving along with several Cal Giant riders. The rest of us pulled through, but none of us overdid it, especially self proclaimed "Glass Crankset Riggs". Barry went really hard (for me) up lap 3's Mama and Papa Bear climbs, dropping Ken and the Cal Giant club guy for good. Since I suffered like a dog, as we were pulling on San Pablo Dam Road, I asked Barry if he wanted to keep it together for the finishing lap. He told me yes. So without being too blunt, Barry put 2 + 2 together that it was in his best interest not to drop the non Cal Giant riders on lap 4's climbs, and I only died like one death that lap.

Lap 5: attacks started coming on San Pablo Dam Rd, and as we turned right onto Castro Ranch Rd, Barry and Blanco simply drilled it up one of the risers, and kept going. I was 101% cross-eyed, and John Hunt (evidently also cross-eyed) closed the gap. It was do or die. Then there were just five of us including Riggs who had been on my wheel. Once the pace eased, Jonothan caught back up as well as Chris. But then another nice acceleration by the Wicks/Blanco duo left only John Hunt as the sole Cal Giant representative.

Riggs, myself, and John planted ourselves firmly on the back for the couple miles before Mama Bear. Blanco promptly attacked from the bottom. I went with him initially but quickly pulled over so Wicks could go with him. I went backwards as John, Riggs, and Jonothan went by me (in that order). I overhauled Jonothan 2/3 of the way up the hill and was able to surge onto Riggs' wheel as John faded away. We both acquired Wicks' and Blanco on the plateau between climbs. But in this tailwind section, Blanco promptly counterattacked leaving Wicks chasing solo and Riggs and I gasping to catch Wicks. We finally did and sat there as Barry finally caught Blanco at the bottom of the finishing Papa Bear climb.

On the last climb, Wicks decided to try and ride us off of his wheel. Luckily there was some wind, so I was able to hang until about 1/2 way up. Riggs somehow found it in him to attack Wicks with about 150 meters to go and coast in for the win. Meanwhile, I dug very deep to distance myself from Blanco and then decided to dig even deeper and see if I could catch Barry. Well unfortunately, I know too many people, and their cheering for me prompted Wicks to step on the pedals a bit more just as I reached his wheel. I had to settle for third.

Tore, in his 3rd 1/2 race won the sprint for 7th in the next group back. Very solid ride by Tore. Greg, Dominic, and Jono rolled in a bit later in the remains of the peloton.

Interesting Note: Every single time I crested Papa Bear, a rabid Jono fan mistook me for him and cheered his lungs out calling out, "Go Jono!!" . At one point I sat up and exclaimed, "I'm not Jono! But thanks!" It went unheeded. Us Asians all look alike.

-Ted