Panoche Pass Road Race Report

The Webcor/Alto Velo Men's Elite Team sent 7 guys to Panoche RR. Webcor Builders Pro, Christine Thorburn, joined us for the day as well. Panoche is a fun out and back course with challenging short hills and fierce winds. Unfortunately, Bruce Wilford crashed on a descent and 4 of his teammates stopped to assist. Ted, Matt & Christine were farther ahead on the road and missed the carnage. Bruce was able to walk away from the crash, for which we were all very relieved. Matt, Ted, and Christine forged on to get some results for the abruptly reduced team. Here's Ted's report of the action.

==========================================
Panoche Pass RR, Pro/1/2
Team: James Badia, BB (Mat Beebe), Dominic, Matt Morenzoni, Rob MacNeill, Jono, Bruce Wilford
Special Guest: Christine Thorburn
Field size: about 38

For our category, the 2nd ever Panoche Pass RR started off without a hitch. Last year, first time promoter, Greg Bloom had to deal with mother nature and a torrential downpour which caused a debris strewn course, rock slides, and more. This year mother nature offered us beautiful conditions + wind (lots of it). A pleasant surprise was the high quality local field that turned up with the likes of ageless Eric Wohlberg(Symmetrics), John Hunt(Cal Giant), Dan Martin(Safeway), Michael Hutchinson(Spine), Jackson Stewart(BMC), David Galvin

Our race began pleasantly, as we cruised out accompanied by a tailwind, it's intensity I underestimated until a certain left turn 3/4 of the way to the turnaround. From the gun, a three rider break formed including our California TT Champ, Matt Morenzoni. This gave the rest of us a free ride. They quickly vanished from sight as our LGBRC driven pack cruised through Panoche Valley.Thus I had a chance to catch up with old teammates, friends, interrupted only by the small hills which caused a bit of discomfort to my sore "East Zayante" legs.

Descending from the main climb of the day, I began to appreciate how strong our tailwind had become as I flew along spinning my 53/11 at over 100rpm. 'Wow' I thought, 'I'm getting dropped. Maybe it's time to move up.' The crucial turn of the day approached where I realized all hell would break loose. I should have anticipated what was going to happen next because Monsieur Wohlberg showed up on the line with a quad spoke front wheel. Bam! Eric drilled it out of the corner leaving all but an alert John Hunt, two BMC riders, and a couple of others instantly off the front. Can you say, "Insta-grovel?" The rest of us found ourselves in the right gutter. Having decided that I am too old for this 'grovel in the gutter' stuff, I instantly moved out to the left and shouted for rider to "Move left!" But unfortunately, old habits die hard when you're cross eyed and I was given nary a glance as I shot backwards, flailing out in the wind. Finally, I succumbed and drifted over into the gutter, having lost about 15 positions. A few wiser folks including Michael Hutchinson went with my line of thinking, and soon, we became the 2nd group on the road. Basically since the right side of the road was only so big, our group quickly whittled down to only those that could fit across it and still receive draft (maybe 5). Working well together, we bridged to the front group just before the base of the last little climb. On the way, we passed by Matt Morenzoni, who rode incredibly well today, and was the lone survivor of that initial break. I shouted for him to jump on, realizing that it would next to impossible.

Up and over, we made it to the turnaround and could then see how shattered the field had become. I drifted to the back of our 10 person group thinking I'd be sitting on waiting for reinforcements. Poor judgement on my part as I was boxed in as Wohlberg attacked hard on the climb out of the feedzone bringing a vigilant Dan Martin and John Hunt with him. It took me precious seconds to unbox myself from the right side of the road, and I took off after them. I got partway across, looked back and saw Jackson bringing up a group, and decided to wait. Over the top, it was Michael Hutchinson, Jackson, another Cal Giant, and me hanging on for grim death. Unfortunately I nearly overcooked it on the sketchy descent and went off into the gravel/scrub brush. I emerged unscathed, but firmly planted in no-man's land. I proceeded to flog myself through the bulk of the vicious crosswind section, not making any headway on the Jackson led group. I sat up and waited for two more riders to catch from behind and restarted the chase.

After turning onto the headwind section, and few more miles of lovely headwind, we caught the Jackson, Michael, and Cal Giant (Ozzie) group. But the lead group of three was nowhere to be seen. They were two minutes up the road and it sounded like their lead was increasing. We all resigned ourselves to rotating through, except for the Cal Giant rider. Jackson decided to pull the plug (probably having just got back from Europe) at the base of the main climb, and the five of us plodded ahead. But when I heard the gap had grown to 4-5 minutes, it became a matter of "let's just get home." We tried to convince the Cal Giant guy to help out, but to no avail.

I conferred a bit with the rest of my breakmates, and I told them if we were attacked near the end by the Cal Giant rider, we'd all work together to bring him back. What happened was even better when Michael attacked with the CVC rider in our break in tow, and they immediately achieved a sizable gap because myself and the Lombardi's rider wasn't about to chase. The next 7 or so miles was great fun as the remaining three of us took turns attacking the crap out of each other, but myself and the Lombardi's rider choosing not to chase each other down. Finally, with a couple miles to go, I broke clear, and thanks to the Lombardi's rider not chasing, I was able to hold a gap and roll in for sixth place. Earlier, Eric chose to eat some serious wind by himself and attacked over the top of the main climb and solo'd in. An on-form Dan Martin outsprinted local strongman, John Hunt for third. Michael very kindly gave a young CVC rider 4th place. Matt and Christine finished in the next group fighting for 8th place.

After the race, I found out that our Bruce Wilford had overcooked one of the turns on the sketchy descent I nearly crashed on and had gone head over wheels, landing heavily. Several of our team stopped to help Bruce and Dominic kindly drove Bruce back to his house. We all wish Bruce a speedy recovery as he had to fly out to England this evening.

Lessons learned:
You need to be in nearly at the front when entering a crosswind section
It's every man for himself in a crosswind gutterfest
Be very scared when Wolhberg shows up with a quad spoke front wheel
New pavement w/ loose chunks of asphalt doesn't provide ideal traction

I encourage riders to come and attend this race, It's well organized and even though the course is out and back, it's plenty challenging.

-Ted