Submitted by Karen Brems on 11/17/09

Saturday was race #3 of the Pilarcitos Bay Area Prestige Series – the most competitve series of the NorCal season. This was the famous Night Race at Sierra Point. As a racer and more of a "morning person", I am not a huge fan of racing at night, but I will admit it made a great spectator venue. They had construction lights set up around the course, so visibility was not really a problem in the race itself. Everywhere else was pretty cold and dark though – made it hard to find all your black clothes in the back of your car!

As for the course, the Pilarcitos crew can do amazing things with just a small patch of grass and dirt! There was a dirt mound about 8ft. high at one end, and we went up it from 6 different directions each lap. Otherwise the course was flat and fast with tons of turns looping back on itself. Kind of fun! There was about 200-300m of pavement on the start/finish straight. They even had a truck spraying water on the course between races for “dust abatement” – ie. to keep dust off the yachts in the marina next to the course so we can keep the venue for future years! Laps were short – in the 5 min. range, so we did a lot of them. There were 4 dismounts per lap: 2 sets of double barriers, a set of Pilarcitos-made steps built into one side of the mound, and a loose, steep off camber run-up the mound. I did not see anyone in the B races riding up the run-up, however later on, most of the A men were riding it. I did see Stella Carey ride it once in warm-up, but it was slow and she almost stalled out. I opted for the safer choice of running. Unfortunately I did not see any of the top women on this section in the race, so I don’t know if any of them rode!

I started the race in the leader’s jersey, only 1 point ahead of Carmen D’Aluisio (Cal Giant) and 3 points ahead of Sarah Maile (Ventana). On a short, flat, fast course, everyone wants a chance at the front and with no start hill to separate things out, this was the most aggressive first lap of the races I have done so far this year. I got a decent start off the line in 2^nd behind Stella, but after only about 100m we went from the wide pavement into a turn over a curb onto single track. Sarah tried to pass Stella on the inside through the turn and she and Stella ended up leaning on each other in front of me and going wide. Both Stella and I were headed straight for the tape. Somehow Stella got loose at the last minute and made the turn, and I also squeezed through missing the course marker post by inches! This detour also allowed Gina Hall (Cal Giant) to slip by on the inside so now I am in 4^th. I wasn’t too worried yet as there were still good riders behind me.  Then on the first hairpin, another rider slipped by. Then a few turns later, Carmen slips by. In the first lap of a CX race, taking the fastest line through a turn, which usually involves going wide and cutting the apex, is not necessarily best because someone will invariably cut inside and block your exit and pass you. Rather, it is often better to take the far inside line. I knew this, but apparently I needed to have it reinforced…

The first barrier section was mayhem with everyone trying to pass each other. The remount area was really bumpy, followed immediately by a short climb up the mound, so getting clipped in and being in the right gear for the hill were critical. Between the bumps and the jostling, I missed my remount and landed with my thigh on my rear tire instead of the saddle and stumbled to one knee… I have been told that in Cross, there is crashing and there is falling down, and there is a difference! This was falling down. A few riders passed me as I got up and I ran partway up the hill to where it leveled out a bit and tried to get on again, but chain had bounced off to the outside and was now jammed in my derailleur and draped around the cranks and the cranks would not turn. It felt like minutes before I got the chain unstuck and back on again. I am sure it was not really that long, but since it was the first half of the first lap, most of the field passed me. Sigh...

The lead train had long since departed, and there we a lot of slower riders between me and it. Not the position I had hoped for! I set off again just trying to pass as many people as possible. It is a lot harder to pass people in your race who don’t really want you to go by than to pass lapped riders later on! A couple of laps later after I had already passed quite a few people, I heard John Elgart say I was on 10^th place. Sigh… At least I had clear road ahead now. Soon I saw Stella and another Rock Lobster rider ahead. I could see Stella was fading. I passed both of them and now I could see Devon Haskell (Velo Bella) not too far ahead, and not far ahead of her was Carmen. Now I was motivated again. I caught Devon and she was going at a reasonable clip, so I stayed on her wheel for a little bit to try to recover. She closed the gap to Carmen as the 3 of us entered the pavement start/finish straight.  This was the best place to draft, but also the easiest place to pass. I figured that since I had caught up to the other 2, I was probably going faster on the day, so I resisted my deeply rooted urge to follow a wheel and accelerated around Devon and Carmen and hit the single track hard. I thought they might stay on my wheel, but they didn’t for long. Soon I could see my next target:  Gina and Sarah. They were quite a ways up though and I only had 2 more laps to go.

I closed in on Sarah and Gina, and by the end, I hit the finish straight as they were sprinting for 4^th and 5^th (Sarah took it) but I ran out of race and ended up 6^th. Kerry Barnholt (Scott-Ritchey) won by a bike throw over Barb Howe (Vanderkitten) about a minute ahead. Kathleen Hannon (Freewheel Hunter), last years’ series winner finished alone in 3^rd, her best result of this season so far. With her 4^th and my 6^th, Sarah moved up in points and we are now tied for the overall lead, but by virtue of placing higher in the most recent race, she takes over the jersey.  Not my best race, but there is always next week! The last 2 races are at Golden Gate Park and Coyote Point, and those courses have a little bit of climbing and are hopefully a bit better suited to me.

Print | posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 2:02 PM