Pedalling Squares

Diamond Valley RR - Master's District Championships

Description:
Vaughn covered it pretty well below. You could break up the course into two parts - easy and hard. After passing through the finish line and the feed zone, you begin a long almost all downhill section (easy!). Then the harder parts starts with the short (think Mama Bear) climb and ends just after the feed zone.

The Plan:
I was doing the 35+ race - gawd, I can't believe I'm that old! AARP discounts are just around the corner. Anyway, they had us old farts scheduled for 5 laps, or about 56 miles. This seemed short to me so it would be important to stay attentive. I'd guess our field size was about 30. I was going to be ready to follow a break early if necessary. Wayne, my breakaway companion from Pescadero, was there and so was Michael Hutchinson, who won the 30+ race at Fort Ord when I did it 2 years ago. He went solo for 4 laps. My plan was to watch those two.

Editor's Note: I was wrong - Michael Hutchinson didn't win the 30+ race at Ford Ord in 2001. He won the 35+ race in 2002. Sorry for the confusion.

How It Unfolded:
Nothing much happened on the first lap. My legs felt a little bit stale - probably from not riding much during the week. I decided to have a go the next time up the small hill (on the second lap). As we neared the end of the descent and the beginning of the first little hill, I got into position near the front. I punched it as hard as I could in the big ring, and then flopped it into the small one. I opened up a big gap - but no takers. I had to loosen the collar a little - like Rodney Dangerfield - 'cause I was getting no respect. That's ok - I didn't want to go 3.5 laps by myself. So we sits up, and we waits up (anyone know the movie reference?).

They caught me at the top. I was cooked, but managed the second hill with the group without difficulty. As we turned up the long slight uphill to the finish line a Spine guy escaped a little. I should mention here that there were 4 Spine guys - Michael Hutchinson and 3 others. It became pretty clear to me early on that the 3 others were working solely for Michael and nothing else. Anyway, Wayne bridges up to him. I was watching this unfold and could see that Wayne had probably just figured out Spine's plan. So two other guys try to bridge and I follow a few seconds later. I catch them and accidentally drop them. I was hoping for quick rest - not gonna happen. So I punched it again to catch Wayne and Spine guy.

He quickly told me that Spine wasn't working, but then I knew that! I told him to ease up so the other two guys could catch on and then we could have a go. That worked ok - the 4 of us started working and pulling through. Within a few minutes - Hutchinson himself had bridged up with 1 or 2 other guys. So now the Spine guy started working and we had a great group - plenty of horses to take us to the finish. I thought we were working really well together - but we got caught near the finish line. I was shocked. With all that strength in our group - I thought for sure that we would stay away. In the Senior 3's - I think we would have. But all of the riders in our field were pretty strong. Damn.

So not much else happened through the feed zone, the descent as we started the climb on the third lap. I *think* it was on this lap that some dude dropped his chain going up. I had to come around his left, but couldn't offer any help as the group was accelerating a little. Then, I heard what could only be crashing sounds. Damn - going uphill? It sounded like maybe someone ran into the guy as he got off of his bike to fix his chain. It didn't sound pretty - but I didn't look back. At this point Hutchinson was getting a little frisky. He kept accelerating here and there. Nothing too threatening, but he was gauging the strength of the group.

After we came over the two climbs - Wayne managed to sneak off the front again. I didn't go with him. I was waiting for Michael or his bitches to do something. They didn't. He didn't look like he was working too hard, but before long, he was out of sight. Three other guys took off to catch him, but other than that, the group was resigned to let them/him go, I guess. So we just rode tempo. As we got near the finish line, the group was really going slow so I attacked. There's a slight rise all the way up to the feed zone and then a little further until the downhill part starts (probably around 2 miles of slight uphill).

One guy joins me, but can only take one pull. He's looking pretty tired. As we pass through the feed zone, I see Shawn Oliver bridging up to us. I give him a hearty welcome and after letting him rest a bit, encourage him to pull through - so he doesn't. We turn to the descent, I start yelling at him to pull through. He takes one short pull and that's it. I'm getting annoyed - but I take one more long pull to bring us up to the 3 breakaways from before. So now there's Wayne up the road and 6 of us.

We start working, but we're not doing a great job. Shawn is apparently tired and is not really doing much work. After a few more rotations, we get caught - about 2/3 of the way down to the first hill. Awww Geeez!!!! I just can't seem to pick the right group! The fourth time up the first of the two climbs was hard, but not too bad. Then it happened. Hutchinson goosed it right at about the beginning of the descent and one guy went with him. I was tired from the climb and just didn't think he'd get much of a gap. Well he did.

By the time we got to the base of the second climb, they probably had about 30 seconds on us. So I hung tough near the front for the second climb, just trying to keep it respectable. By the time we crested the top I couldn't even see them. Damn. They were gone. We tried but just couldn't organize anything. People were apparently happy to race for 4th place. In fact, most thought they were racing for 3rd place - they had forgotten about Wayne. I didn't! I pulled off and said that for 4th place we might as well Rock/Paper/Scissors for it - what's the point of sprinting for 4th place? There would be: 1) no money; 2) no medals; 3) no podium; and most importantly, 4) no podium ho's! But, it wasn't happenin'. We weren't going to catch them - that much was clear.

So as we pulled through the feed zone, I took some neutral water to drink and shower with. Then, I felt a pin prick on my right thigh. I look down and YIKES, I've been hit! I don't know what it was, but something stung me. It didn't hurt too bad - only when I really went hard. Despite the agony, I had to continue. I could already hear the comments if I didn't: "If Tyler can ride Grand Tour with a fractured collarbone ..." So of course I had to soldier on. I know, I'm soooooooooo brave!

Aside from that, we rode up to the finish. Things got hectic near the 1K. I was positioned well near the front, but got pushed wide left and had to touch my brakes a little in the sprint. So I ended up 10-12th, I think. I was a little disappointed, but I definitely animated the race.

I caught up with Wayne and we did a little cool down spin. He told me that Hutchinson and friend caught him near the top of the short climb and then Hutchinson attacked hard on the second climb and left them both for the solo win. Wayne outsprinted the other guy for 2nd (what an animal!). I think Shawn Oliver got 6th.