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Posted by Paul on Sunday, August 17, 2003 at 9:16 PM

Corral Hollow Road Race, August 16, 2003


Description:
Vaughn, Rob and I previewed the course a few weeks ago. The first thing I noticed - it was windy. I guess that's what all the windmills are for! The race starts out with roughly 4 miles of climbing, which has some steep parts, and some flatter parts. The last mile is a series of stairstep pitches that take you up over the top of Patterson Pass. Then you descend for a few miles, then turn onto Flynn Road where you do more climbing, gently at first. Then there's a quick downhill and a real stinger of a climb that doesn't last long, but really takes it out of you. Then you descend for awhile, cross over a freeway, more descending, then onto Altamont Road, I think. Here it's mostly flat with some rollers for nearly 10 miles. Then you turn back under the freeway for another good short climb (Papa Bear, maybe) and then descend to the finish. The finish straight is long enough that your position in the final corner isn't that crucial. That comes out to about 23 miles - the Senior 3's do 3 laps for nearly 70 miles.

The Plan:
This is a good course to escape on. It's really hard to organize a chase. Plus, when we rode it, the flatter part of the course had a huge tailwind, so a small break could fly. I wanted to try "something special" as Phil and Paul would say on lap 2 and take it from there. Rob and Vaughn agreed to help where they could. Rob was going to try to be there to launch me on lap 2 if necessary.

Also, after chatting with Pat Caurant at the start line, he was telling us that the last time he did this race, it was a race of attrition. That really got me thinking about my plans for lap 2 . . .

How It Unfolded:
So, it wasn't windy at all but it was really farkin' hot. We started the race 30 minutes late, and the temp was in the mid 80's. Some white jersey guy took off solo and no one cared, probably because we didn't really know who he was. I stayed attentive on the climb, moved near the front, and watched for who was looking strong, setting the tempo, etc. There was this one guy in a Cal Berkeley jersey (hint hint). I finished near the front at the top of Patterson, without much difficulty, although my HR was into the 180's for part of it. Yowza!

We caught the soloist halfway up Flynn. Things went fine up Flynn, down to Altamont to the flat part. It was here that Vaughn got bored with road racing and briefly tried his hand at cyclo-cross. Hopefully he'll elaborate. Oh yeah, somewhere in here, white jersey attacked again (I think). And somewhere on this flat part, 2-3 other guys got away as well.

We come around to the start/finish and started lap 2. My cyclocomputer has a temp reading on it (which I don't really trust): showing 101F. I think the high for Livermore proper was 97. Regardless, it is hot! Rob and Vaughn were moving to the front to ride tempo for awhile at the base of the climb. But just as they started to move up, I notice Cal Berkeley off the front with one other in tow. He's too good a climber, judging from the first lap - I have to bridge. This move went much earlier than I wanted, but well, I felt it was the right thing to do.

I bridged up to them, and didn't do any work for a few minutes - I was maxed. I took a few token pulls, looked back, and saw the carnage behind us. Cal Berkeley was riding away, but there wasn't much I could do about it. He was strong and skinny. Soon, a group of 5 gelled, including Pat Caurant. We came over the top together. We dropped one guy and picked up another by the time we topped out on Flynn and started bombing the descent. We motored pretty good through the flats. We never did see any of the guys off the front, which was frustrating, but we also had to be sure we weren't going to be caught. So we pressed on.

The next time through the start finish - oh the sense of dread. 4 miles of brutal climbing in 100+ temps with no shade anywhere. I took a water bottle in the feed zone and drank as much as I could. We weren't killing it on the climb, but it was still painful. We dropped Pat about halfway up. Bummer. I actually started feeling a little better as we came over the top - or my breakaway companions were tiring. I'm not sure which. As we started up Flynn I started to feel twinges of cramps in my left calf. I took another long drink from my water bottle. I could see that I was going to run out before we got to the finish.

The four of us worked pretty well together down the hill and then along the flat part. Some guys were skipping pulls - and I started to think again about Leesville. Maybe I should try something on that last short climb before the finish. As we started up it - I abandoned the idea, but I did up the tempo some to see what reaction I got. I liked my chances against this small group in a sprint. But we still didn't know how many people were up the road. I didn't think any more than 4, probably less than that.

So near the top of the last hill, we caught Cal Berkeley guy. I asked him how many up the road - he said 3 or 4 (he was wrong). We descend the little hill, and with about 1K to the line, Cal Berkeley attacks. I stand up and instantly felt more cramping in both quads and the left calf. Nice.

Attrition, right. Got it. Now I understand.

Anyway, after that, I was pretty sure he was done. I came into (and out of) the last 2 corners in second position - right where I wanted to be. The guy in front of me attacks? Sprints? I don't know, it was way too early, but I'm eatin' it up. Just as he peters out, I come around and launch it as hard as I can. I don't hear anyone near me until the very end, but I hold him off by maybe a bike length.

So as it turns out, Cal Berkeley guy was wrong - only white jersey guy was ahead of us. So I got second! Wow - another Velo Promo T shirt to add to the collection.

Stats
Avg HeartRate: 163 bpm
Avg Speed: 20.1 mph
Max Speed: 47.9 mph

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