Team Fremont/FFBC powered by Chipotle

Berkeley Hills RR

May 15, 2012 Race report, Road Race

Other teammates: Gonzalo, Bill, Mike, John L, Rory

Class/Cat: M45+ cat 4

Finishing place: 27/48

Berkeley Hills was the 2nd race for me for this season.  I felt like I’m in better shape at this point in the season than last year so I was hoping to stay with field.  There were about 50 starters in the 45+ cat 4 group including Gonzalo.  The race starts with a 2 mile promenade out to the course and then a gradual downhill run to the first right turn and the first of several short power climbs.  Basically, everyone seemed to have the same idea of how to ride this race, conserve energy on the flatter portions and go hard on all the climbs, burn everyone’s legs out and let the best win on the final climb.   There may have been a few trying to go off the front but no one managed to get more than 10s up the road before they were reeled in within a few miles of the next climb.  The first time up the bears (Baby, Mama, & Papa) I was working hard but was able to keep my place in the pack.  I thought I was in the middle but I kept hearing the motorcycle not far behind.  Gonzalo was having troubles with the climbs and was getting gapped on every climb.  I didn’t think I was going to see him until the end of the race, but he would chase and catch back on just before the next climb, get gapped and chase again.  He was in for a long morning!

The 2nd lap was more of the same and the bears were OK and I had no trouble staying with the pack through the S/F line.  The 3rd lap the racing started in ernest and the speed picked up on the flatter sections.  When we started the bears again the pace was a notch higher on the climb.  At the top of Baby bear, I was gapped by about 25 feet to the end of the pack.  It may as well have been 250ft at that point.  I gave it everything I had on the decent and worked with another rider.  We charged up Momma Bear with the pack dangling just in front, but again at the top of Momma bear, we had about a 40ft gap and could not close before the decent.  I was gassed but went as hard as I could, even drafting passing cars to try and gain a few more feet but to no avail.  When I stared the final climb to the finish, the pack was about 15s ahead.  My finishing place, 27/48.  Gonzalo finished about 5 minutes later but he was chasing almost the entire race!  After downloading the garmin stats and comparing to last year, this race was ridden 1.5 mph faster and I was riding the climbs at about 1.8mph faster than last year.   Lessons learned from this race:  loose two more pounds, do more hill intervals.

Cats Hill Crit – From the Skipper

May 7, 2012 Criterium, Events

Its not the crash that hurts, it’s the sudden deceleration. Just ask Thomas, who involuntarily dismounted at Cat’s hill Criterium while descending the hill at about 32 mph. The tree he hit will never be the same. The good news is that apart from road rash in huge amounts and aching all over he is good to go. and his new Leopard DC1 survived, along with the Williams carbon wheel set. I have spoken to Tom and Bryan a few times and he is considering racing at States next Saturday. As they say on the other side of the pond, “well ‘ard”.
Team Results
E3 – Rory DNP. only 42 finished out of 72 starters
E4/5 35+ Phil Mai (Phil rides with us at TNT) 7 o/o 37
E5 – Geno 6th, Darryl Lueng 19th, Mike Lueng 20th o/o 28
J15/16 – Brandon 9th, Thomas DNP, Olly Barajas 6th o/o 17
J17/18 – Ram 15th, Arthur 18th o/o 22
P/1/2 – Ziggy DNP (pulled out with 8 laps with go in the 75 minute slug fest)

Cats Hill Criterium

May 6, 2012 Criterium, Race report

Cats hill criterium
Category 5
Teammates Mike, Darryl
Field size 28
Result 6

Fun crit! I arrived with plenty of time to warm up and so I hopped on the trainer for about 5 minutes. (Not a big fan of warming up) Race time! I started out near the back like I always do but once we hit the climb I made up some ground dispite being in a massive gear. After the first lap I was able to settle in and I was able to position myself within the top five riders for most of the race. With about five laps to go I did not want to pull and so I moved back a few spots. Once I hit the climb, I looked back I found that there were only 4 guys behind me. I believe the field was down to around 12-15 guys at that point. I found myself in the middle of the pack with two laps to go and once we hit the climb three riders went off the front. At first I was reluctant to chase because I didnt want to be the one pulling the three riders back. No one was giving it a good enough effort and so I ended up dragging the group within 20 feet of the three riders. They realized the gap was closing and hamered away. I then got passed by a few guys. Once i was back on the hill i made up some ground on the riders in front of me. I was able to pass up one rider on the descent and had a lonely but satisfying sprint for sixth place. There wasnt anything super sketchy in the race and I think this is an excellent race! If you havent done it do it!

Geno Uliana

Wente Road Race

May 1, 2012 Road Race

Last year I was DQ’d at Wente, my very first road race. It was rather embarrassing and disappointing especially since I was actually enjoying the event… er, no, I was suffering miserably. This year, with very little intensity to my training, my goals weren’t exactly lofty. All I wanted was not to be DQ’d and to finish the event, preferably with a smile on my face. As my ever encouraging team mates reminded me on my last time up Carroll – to smile means you’re not working hard enough, so I scrapped the last part of my second goal. I finished without being DQ’d, and the heat on Carroll wiped the smile off my face (but I was smiling on the inside).I came 32nd of the 34 finishers so I’ve got lots to work on before next year.

p.s. An added bonus was that I did my first ever water bottle pass off at the feed zone.

Wente RR M45+4,5

Apr 29, 2012 Race report

Teammates:  Just about everyone in a whole slew of categories.

Teammates in M45+4,5: None (Gonzalo had to work and could not make it)

Results: maybe in the 40s of a field of 73

Hey, it was perfect weather.  Gary had the tent and support kit out.  Keith was in the feed zone supporting the morning races.  Thanks guys!

Our group had 74 registered riders minus Gonzalo who had to work and could not make the start.  Taleo had about 10 riders in the field, the most of any team.  I was talking with one of my Alto Velo friends and discussing the possibility of Taleo doing some team blocking  if they got a group out in front.  But as soon as the race started we saw that the Taleo guys could not keep more than four guys together in the top 20 as they ended up spreading out due to differing fitness levels.

The first time up the hill was hard, shades of last year, the pack spread out but I held on in the last third of the group and maintained contact.  We bunched up on the Greenville leg and I decided I needed more buffer room for the 2nd climb so I moved up to the front of the group so that I could be in the front of the group when we started the climb the 2nd time.  It was probably the best strategy for me, but everyone seemed to be going full tilt the whole climb and I started to loose ground and by the time we crossed the StartFinish line, there were probably 40 riders moving away from me in two groups and I was now in the lead the “stragglers chase group”.  As we approached Flynn Rd, we started picking up people falling out of the lead and chase1 groups.

That’s about it, as there was no chance of catching the lead or chase1 groups, the gap was getting larger and they were out of sight.  I was now riding with about 6 or 7 guys and we worked together most of the time, but this was now a training race for all of us.  I tried to do as much work on Greenville to keep our pace up and encourage a rotation.  On the final climb, I sprinted hard in the final 75m and was able to drop everyone in my group and about 10 other M55+ riders also sprinting for the finish.

Actually this was a good training race for me, being the first race of the season for me.  In comparing my strava results vs last year, I was definitely going faster this year on the climbs.  Just not quite fast enough to keep up with the leaders.  This indicates that my conditioning is slightly better this year when compared to last year at this time so that’s encouraging.  Next race, Berkeley Hills RR

Belated Regalado RR Report

Apr 13, 2012 Race report, Road Race

Team mates: Bill Brier, Rey Surla, Chris Gaitos, Michael Baxter, Gonzalo Carrillo, Roy Taylor
54 miles
Cat: 4 (women)
Result: 2nd
Field size: do I really have to say? Ok – 2
I tried to post this report right after the race, while the details were fresh in my mind, but WordPress and I had a spat and I lost. Finally, using a different browser, after changing my password five times, and clicking my heals twice, I finally got it to work. On to the race.
I signed up for Regalado based on the fact that it was hosted on a Sunday. It’s a poor way to choose a race but since I don’t have Saturdays free until mid-June and I wanted to try a road race before Wente it seemed like a good choice. I signed up as soon as registration opened. Roy told me a couple of weeks later that only one other woman was signed up. It was disappointing, especially as the forecast for race day was poor which made it unlikely there’d be any race day entrants. Sure enough it was just Pennie Sponsel from IronDataThirstyBearCycling.com and me. It wasn’t hard to spot my competition at registration. She immediately suggested riding together which was nice but a little intimidating. I’ve done lots of base training this year but I’m distinctly lacking on the intensity front. My original plan for the race was to stay with the group as long as possible to gain experience and then fall off the back if I couldn’t keep up. With only one person to race against, someone with plenty of race experience, I felt a little like the Emperor in the kids story who didn’t have clothes. Pretty soon Pennie was going to figure out that I was a club rider masquerading as a racer.
As expected we started off with one of the men’s groups (Cat 5 Master 35-99 I think). We stuck at the back of the pack chatting with the referee through the neutral zone. He had good suggestions and was very encouraging. Pennie and I stuck with the men for the first few miles of the race, drafting nicely off them. We turned a corner and suddenly, poof!,  they were gone. We couldn’t believe how quickly the pace had picked up, and that was the last time we saw them.
Then it was just my competition and me. We chatted as we rode, well mostly Pennie talked and I grunted monosyllabic responses as I tried to get into a rhythm. It became apparent really quickly that I was completely out classed. Pennie could have probably lapped me if she chose, but she didn’t and we both had a really fun race. As it turns out Pennie is also a coach and over the course of our 54 mile race she coached me and offered me lots of great encouragement.
Because it was all new and I was trying to find a pace I could sustain for the entire 54 miles the first lap seemed quite hard. I’d been looking forward to, and dreading, the dirt section of the course in equal measures. I don’t mind a bit of gravel but after all the rain the night before what we encountered was not dirt, it was more like small lakes interspersed with mud flats. We were lucky, because we’d agreed to stick together, and there were only two of us, we could pick our line through it. Even doing that was hard in places. I can only imagine how hard it was for the men’s groups to really race through it. The pot holes were deep, wheel-sucking lakes, one of which was the width of the entire road. Unfortunately I ended up riding through it when my back wheel slipped in the mud at the edge of the road. I had a nice rooster tail for the rest of the race but I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed that part of the course, it added a little interest.
The second lap felt so much better than the first. Pennie and I chatted, we talk to the cows, horses, dogs, donkeys. We exchanged life stories. Pennie continued dispensing valuable advise and since we were only racing against each other we stopped to help a rider with a flat (who didn’t have a pump). It was very civilized but it was not a leisurely ride in the park (at least not for me).
At the beginning of the third and final lap it looked like it was going to pour. At few drops of rain on my bike and then if was fine again. The landmarks were becoming familiar and everything was going pretty well until I started to bonk. I’d brought 2 bars with me, broken into small pieces in zip lock bags in my jersey pockets. The only problem was that one of them was too hard to chew comfortably and it mostly tasted of stale cardboard, while the other (a favorite) was tucked into my middle pocket and no amount of wrestling with it and my jersey could dislodge it. My emergency energy is Hammer Gel. I’m not a fan of gels, they just taste nasty so I rarely use them but I was really glad I thought to throw one into my pocket. The only problem was that I couldn’t rip the top off. Dang! Eventually I managed a dribble from the gel but it wasn’t enough. So, I bonked half way through the last lap and really only figured out the problem after the race. Pennie slowed her pace so as not to lose me which of course just made me feel worse.
Did I mention we had our own personal SAG vehicle follow us with lights flashing for most of the third lap? We were the last people on the course. Each time we got to a turn the volunteers were so happy to see us so they could pack up and go home. We lost our SAG on Tim Bell (the lake road) but regained it again shortly before the end of the race when it went from being our SAG to our lead car. Pennie, who was so patient through the entire race, decided to let the horses run to the finish. I tried to follow her but the tank was empty.
All in all a great race although race might be too strong a word for it. I’m looking forward to doing it again next year hopefully with a few more women.
Sorry for the terse report, next time I’ll try to flesh it out with a few details.

Beat the Clock TT

Apr 12, 2012 Time Trial

TNT – Thursday, April 5

Apr 4, 2012 Race report, Team Rides, Thursday Night Training

Please be prepared to roll BEFORE 6:30pm as we are heading away from the Eureka-Stevenson course!

+ before 6:30pm – signed in and ready to roll (maybe you rode over, good!). Ask any questions about the workout.
+ route – Cherry- Central- Thornton- Dumbarton Bridge- dirt road- Alameda Creek Trail- Coyote Hills- Nike Hill- Don Edwards – Thorton – Central- Cherry
+ overview- this is a group ride. Those that feel strong will stay near the front and rotate through the wind, those that are fighting to keep up MUST keep up the good fight and NOT rotate with the stronger riders. Everyone that does this workout will practice drafting. There will be two designated places for supreme efforts so please stay together until we get to those spots. If any teammate should flat then two teammates will stay with that rider, help them change their flat and chase back. There are two re-grouping spots.
+ Specifics: part one – from Eureka-Stevenson we will turn left onto Cherry, left onto Central, left onto Thorton, left into Don Edwards/ Dumbarton TOGETHER.
+ Specifics: part two – after the Don Edwards/ Dumbarton Bridge road stop sign we will practice echelon riding like this: one rider goes solo and is given a five second lead. They try to hold off the group that is in a echelon paceline behind them, working together. Use only part of the road. If you are in the fast group, go to the end of the bridge, turn around and come back to the slower group (extra miles!). If you are in the slower group you are still working together to catch the groups in front of you. Regroup at the base of the Dumbarton bridge climb.
+ Specifics: part three – once together we will head under the bridge and towards the Alameda Creek trial on a dirt road. Yes, you can do this on your road bike. It’s fun! Relax, apply power and keep your head up. We will split up on this road, so turn right on Alameda Creek, right into Coyote Hills (west side), and then right up Nike Hill for a few hill repeats.
+ Specifics: part four – strong riders will arrive at Nike Hill ahead of others. Start climbing, descend and repeat. Slow riders will catch up and meet you there. Time check on how many repeats we do and then we head back together.
+ Specifics: part five – TOGETHER after repeats on Nike Hill we head south on the dirt road that puts us above the toll plaza, left into Don Edwards, right on Thorton, right on Central, right on Cherry and back to Eureka no later than 8pm. Bring lights and a sense of adventure.

Larry