After a very short break, Katheryn is back to racing the local Northern CA classic Cal Cup races. She had her first win in the Patterson Pass road race.
Here is Katheryn's Report:
After taking some downtime following two good weeks of racing up in Bend, OR, I decided it was time to pin a number on my back and see what was left in the tank for racing. Fortunately, despite the season being over for racing with the team, I have the ability to do some great races here in Northern California that are part of a month long race series - Cal Cup. I chose to skip the first one - a 35k tt - as it was 2 hours (one way), hardly worth the trip in my opinion.
So, today, I set the alarm for an ungodly hour,4:45am!, and loaded up the car with four bikes, one husband and two friends. The car drive started in the dark but a beautiful sunrise greeted us as we crossed the bay and headed to Livermore, CA for Patterson Pass road race. We arrived early enough to secure decent parking, close enough to the porta potties, good proximity to the registration and start line and close to the road as the dirt parking lot was riddled with goatheads (see http://www.goatheads.com/home/gh1/page_41 for more information, and you thought you were only getting a race report, not a botany lesson). As the P1/2 guys had the first start at 8:00 and mine was not until 8:35, I had ample time to get ready and spin the legs around.
Patterson Pass road race is one of the toughest races in NorCal. It is set on a ~38k loop that has very little flat in it. The Tour of California has used the climb, from both directions, for each of its runnings. The climb begins within in the first 5k and stair-steps up for about 3k, with a lovely false summit that leaves your jaw dropped to your top tube as you look up and see where the top is and that there is a lot of distance and climbing between you and the real summit. A fun and fast decent gives the legs a bit of a rest before taking a right turn and the road kicks up again. There is a short climb that sucks all the strength out of the body as it kicks up the last 25m but that is the last climb for until you come towards the end of the circuit. Otherwise, it is downhill or false flat downhill. One thing a rider is very aware of when doing this race is the windmills that dot the landscape, yes, it does get windy! Fortunately today was calmer than in previous years I have done it.
Since Patterson is one of the tougher races in NorCal, just a handful of women lined up for the start. We had a mellow roll out after receiving our race instructions (no crossing the yellow line, although there were many miles of no yellow line, hmm...), and no one seemed ready to push the pass. I soon got antsy and when we went though the feedzone (about 5k into the race) I went to the front and began to set steady tempo. I could hear and sense people on my wheel and whenever the pitch of the road increased, I increased the pressure. When I hit the false summit, I looked back and had about a 50m gap on a very small chase group. I put my head down and took a bit of a breather on a slight descent before the climb to the top. I was grateful for the long downhill as I began to have a non-welcome revisit of my breakfast.
I continued to keep the pressure on for the rest of the first lap and going up the long climb the second time. As the lead motor hung back with the chase group, I had no idea what my gap on the chase group was. Unfortunately, the heat that is indicative of the East Bay/Central Valley began to ramp up as the liquid in my bottles decreased. I began to wish for the ability to raise my hand and drop back to the follow car to get some nice cold water and mix. No luck, I didn't even have a neutral support wheel car following me. I started the last of three laps feeling a bit parched and heavy in the legs. To make matters worse, the feedzone was a bit of a ghost town and the neutral feeders were out of water. Seriously! Really, no water!!! Fortunately, I continued up the feedzone and begged for water from the few remaining supporters and found some very generous guy to give me a COLD bottle of water. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I also managed to beg a bottle from a guy coming down the hill. Again, thank you!
To say that the last time up the long climb was painful would be an understatement. Thoughts of turning around and cruising back to the car passed through my head every odd peddle stroke and I was doing the paper boy up the final kicker. My stomach was in knots and my legs felt horrible. I was so happy to hit the top and knew that the worst was over.
Fortunately, just as the descent leveled out, the women's follow moto came up to me and said he would go back and get a time check. I did my best to keep focused on my legs going around in circles and not pedal squares. In a few K, I heard a moto coming up from behind and instead of the one following us, it was the P1/2 men's and soon a group of three guys (one being James), went flying by me. I did not even have enough energy to cheer him on. I was in survival mode at this point. Eventually the moto did return and informed me there was a group of four chasing at over three minutes back but one of the riders was cramping and falling off the group.
I hit the gradual descent and was greeted with a nice headwind, nothing big but at this point, it felt like riding in a high speed wind tunnel. Another group of guys passed me and as tempting as it was to hop in the group and get a free ride in, I pulled off to the side and kept out of their draft. The moto came up one more time, with about 7K left and told me I now had over four minutes. Now I just had to not ride myself off the road in my state of delirium.
Fortunately, the last 5+k provided me with a tail/cross tail wind and I crossed the finish line never so happy to be finished with a race.
Wins are always nice and as I have not won this race before, I can now add it to my list.
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