CalCup Round 1: Patterson Pass RR

The Webcor/Alto Velo team put in another strong showing by getting on the podium at a NorCal epic RR. Below is Dominic's Report

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Patterson Pass, Pro/1/2
4 laps, 90(+) miles
August 11, 2007
Field: 60+
Teammates: Ted Huang (3rd), me (13th), Tore Natua, Greg Davis, Matt Morenzoni

Normally the best finisher on the team writes the report but Ted
wanted someone else to share the load since he gets all the results in
road races and thus always has to write the reports :-) So for today
I'm stepping in for Ted...

A good field lined up at the start for the P/1/2 race: we had the
pleasure of a strong CalGiant team, two BMC riders (Mike Sayers and
Scott Nydham), Jared Barrilleaux (MetroMint), Brian Buchholz (BPG) and
the usual collection of guys who like hilly road races.

Just before the start, Matt asks me if I have a spare brake pad. A
spare what? Turns out Greg's rear brake pad broke - it was made of
cork and it cracked in half. We searched around in vain for an extra
brake pad and I looked at Greg with some concern. The course at
Patterson doesn't require a lot of intensive braking but riding the
descent in a big pack with no rear brake seemed like an unwise thing
to do. So that helped decide team tactics: Greg would get into an
early break and see how it went on the descent. Greg agreed to it
and that was our initial plan along with the usual cover other moves
and see how things play out later in the race.

As expected with the wind howling down the pass and 4 laps ahead of us
we set out at a slow pace. Greg wasted no time in going up the road
in the company of Patrick Briggs (Cal Giant). Part way up the climb
Tore rolled up next to me and said "he took his job seriously!". We
could see Greg and Patrick already probably a minute ahead of the
field.

Greg and Patrick stayed off for the rest of the lap but were pulled
back in part way up the climb the second time. As we were closing in
on Greg and Patrick we were entertained by loud complaints from a
CalGiant rider who felt compelled to tell everyone (repeatedly) how
Greg was punching it on the hills and so Patrick wasn't working with
him any more, etc. You see one of the nice things about riding in the
P/1/2 category is that well, everyone considers themselves a "pro" and
is thus quite confident in their abilities and opinions. And they're
frequently more than happy to share them with you even if you aren't
interested. For what it's worth Greg didn't feel like he punched it
at all on the hills so perhaps the commentator was mistaken.

After we caught Greg and Patrick, Mike Sayers and Jared counter
attacked on the main climb. That was a move that had some legs and
unfortunately no AV in it. It's a long race though so there was hope
they would fade.

On the second climb on lap 2, Ted decided to stretch his legs and took
off. This elicited more commentary about how he's never going to make
it alone, etc. Anyway, Ted didn't get any company and was duly reeled
in. Going over the 580 overpass some counter moves went including one
with me, James Mattis, Kevin Klein and someone from BPG. I figured
this move might have the right composition to get away but sadly we
didn't get to work quickly enough and it fell apart.

We rode pretty slowly the rest of the lap and the gap to Sayers and
Jared ballooned to 3 minutes. This produced a bit of concern and some
folks started putting in some efforts to up the pace. Once again
though the pace slackened and we were going up the main climb the
third time at an absolutely anemic pace. Again we were treated to
commentary from members of CalGiant about how we ought to chase down
that break, etc. I wound up on the front leading the pack up the
climb but going so slowly that it was pathetic (seriously, I was
putting out < 250w going uphill which is about as slow as you can go
without falling over). I got a bit tired of it and upped the pace on
the higher reaches of the climb but it wasn't much and although we
were at least now pedaling for real, it was hardly a spirited chase.
This effort too received yet more commentary about how I had
"attacked" into a head wind from the front of the group. Sheesh, some
days you just can't do anything right.

On the backside tailwind section we rocketed along - hitting 52 mph
according to my bike computer. This section alone makes the race
worth doing (IMHO).

As we hit Midway road (about 1-2 miles before the start/finish), the
pace got really hard and echelons formed. I made a feeble attempt at
staying to the right of the centerline but it was impossible. I
looked over at the moto official guy and said "hey I'm trying" and he
kindly replied "don't worry about it". Sadly I still got gapped off
along with about 5-7 other guys at this point. Ted made the split
with the main group. The rest of us groveled and managed to catch
back on by the feed zone.

At this point the break was only maybe a minute or so up the road.
James Mattis and a few others were leading the chase. I worked my way
up through the group and got up to Ted. I started to recover a bit
and felt like I could hang. Here though I made a critical judgement
error. Ted asked me if I could help pull. I could have but knew that
if I did I'd never make it through when the counter-attacks came. I
really wanted to make it in the lead group so I sat in. Instead I
should have gone right to the front and pulled back the break.

Ted took the initiative that I lacked and went to the front and set a
steady hard tempo, reducing the gap to the break even further. At
this point I was somewhere around 3rd or 4th wheel in the very single
file and very tired group of maybe 20 guys.

With maybe 25 meters to the top of the climb I thought to myself, gee,
this would be a good time to attack. No sooner had the thought formed
in my head when BOOM! Scott Nydham hit the gas. It was like a bomb
exploded - Adam Switters was yelling at his teammate Kevin Klein "get
out of the way I gotta get on that", guys were scrambling and
groveling to get on wheels (remember the wind up there was still
absolutely ferocious) and it was in general total chaos. Scott gapped
everyone followed by Ted and Andres Gil. In total it was a matter of
maybe 5 extra hard pedal strokes to get on Ted but I didn't quite make
it. In the space of the next 30 seconds, Scott was just gone, Ted and
Andres opened a gap of 300 meters, chased by one or two others and
then the rest of us grouped up. Amazingly I got yelled at again by a
member of the Rock Racing team to pull and I was like "dude are you
stupid? Ted is up the road, why would I pull?". Apparently some
people forget that you're not supposed to chase down your teammates.

Ted managed to catch Mike Sayers at the base of the second climb.
Jared was still up ahead and Nydham even further ahead of him. Ted
pulled up next to Sayers and said "That Jares is the real deal, eh?".
Sayers didn't respond so Ted decided that if he was going to ride in
silence he'd do it alone and dropped Sayers (and Andres). Ted then
solo'ed in for a very well earned third place from there.

Behind, all I had to do was sit on and get a free ride. I was now
actually feeling almost perky and decided that even if I was racing
for some irrelevant minor placing I would put in a good showing. We
turned on to Midway and hit the crosswinds. We slowed and guys
started to chit-chat. This made it the perfect time to attack. I
took off which incited Chris D'Alusio, Kevin Klein and another rider
to chase. They caught me a bit before the top and I hung but then
couldn't quite match one of Chris' accelerations and got gapped. I
did manage to hold off the rest of the group which netted me 13th
(woohoo).

Hats off to Ted for yet another good finish. Mucho thanks to Tore,
Greg and Matt who all helped out in the feedzone after they dropped
out.

thanks for reading,
--dominic