Merco Credit Union Foothills RR, Cat 4 - Steve Rosen

I had a few apprehensions about doing this race - due to some family stuff that happened this last week, I had not been able to get in much training - and getting blown out at Snelling last week was a bit disheartening, to say the least.

Then I had to consider that I was racing with a bunch of young-uns - some were less than half my age! That's only because the Masters 35+ Cat 4 and the Masters 45+ open races had filled up so fast - Bryan King had sent me an e-mail a few weeks ago, letting me know the only race I could do was his race - the regular Cat 4 group.

Since this race had a "desirable" profile (i.e., no huge climbs - just rollers, similar to San Ardo or Henleyville, or the recent Cantua Creek race I've done), I figured, "Oh, why not?" - and promptly signed up...

At the start line, the race announcer told us we were going to get an extra-long wait period after the Women's Pro/1/2 group took off just before us - he explained they had 3 laps (of a 24-mile course) - and we only had 2, so they figured we would be going faster than them - and it turns out he was right - even with the 10-minute delay in starting, we still caught them near the end of our first lap!

When they told us to start our race, I was somewhat dreading what lay ahead - I had visions of Snelling all over again - these were just Cat 4 guys - but they were YOUNG Cat 4 guys - and there were a lot of big teams - 9 Roaring Mice, 9 Third Pillars, 6 Webcors, 6 Godspeeds, 5 Bezerkleys - you get the idea...and since this was an NRC race - the first of the year - I expected it to be even more competitive than Snelling.

My only solace was that the wind was not nearly as strong as the week before - it was a much more gentle, about 5 to 10 mph - and not the 20 to 35 mph gusts we had to deal with at Snelling - and this race actually shared some of the same roads as Snelling - if you put the 2 courses together, you get a figure eight...

But much to my surprise - and delight, the pace for those first few miles was almost like a Masters 45+ 4/5 race (the kind I usually do) - in fact, Bryan wasn't even sure we were actually racing at first!

I felt pretty good for most of the race - I was keeping myself in the top third of the pack the whole time - if you allowed yourself to get stuck in the middle of the pack and totally protected, you'd quickly drift to the back of the pack, as streams of guys on both sides (it was a closed course, thankfully!) moved their way to the front. I quickly figured out the best place to be was on the outside, so I could hop onto one of those side streams, keeping my position near the front - it meant I had to do a little more work (not as protected from the wind, not as much draft), but it was worth it.

This group was a bit sketchy, with guys yelling out about every little disturbance - "Potholes!", "Slowing!", "Water bottle!" - I mean, come on, guys - most of that stuff is no big deal - just roll over the bumps in the road, including the water bottles and bots dots - it's not like your bike is going to suddenly collapse and self-destruct! The group seemed just a bit too verbal, Bryan and I agreed...

I also saw more than one guy playing "bumper cars" with his neighbor - you really need to pay attention to your position in a large pack - and our pack was quite large - 100 starters - the largest I had done in a very long time - but it was a total blast, I must say! We even had some humorists in our group - on the back side of the course, as we passed by a very large pile of manure, one guy yells out, "Welcome to Smelling!"... :)

Also, our pack had a very hard time going through the corners at speed - I was amazed at how slowly guys would try to negotiate through the turns - and this is why you wanted to be near the front, to avoid the yo-yo syndrome in the middle and back of the pack. It seemed to me a lot of these guys only did road races - and had never done crits, where you need to hit a corner hard and fast every 30 seconds or so...

We had a few hard attacks – but none of the attacks stuck - one or two guys would pop off the front, the pack would let them dangle for a few minutes - then the pack would promptly gobble them back up again. It appeared all the big teams were intent on this being a big bunch sprint at the end - the sprinters were all salivating, it would seem - but with those few hills near the end, I was looking forward to mixing it up with them - and I think Bryan had similar thoughts.

Getting back to the Womens Pro/1/2 group that I mentioned earlier, we caught them just before the finish line on the first of our two laps, near an area with a few small hills – there was general confusion in the pack and I had unfortunately fallen asleep and let myself drift off towards the middle of the pack. Some guys were yelling that the race was neutralized, while others were attacking like crazy at the front! A few guys in front of me allowed a gap to form, but I quickly jumped around them and caught onto the back of the pack – but my left calf had a funny feeling in it – almost like it was going to cramp, mostly from the hard effort – but I was lucky in that the main pack slowed down a bit just after the hills and I was able to go relatively easy and stretch my leg out – and the pre-cramp feeling finally subsided on the back stretch of the 2nd lap.

Since it was obvious this was going to come down to a bunch sprint at the end, after those small set of hills, it was critical to make sure you got positioned properly as we started up the first of those small hills. But as we made this hard left turn about 2 miles from the finish area, Bryan and I got caught behind some guy that crashed in that left turn! Arggghhh!!

Fortunately, neither of us went down, as Bryan turned onto the dirt embankment to the guy’s right and I started to swing around to the guy’s left – but Bryan got stuck in the soft dirt and I got cutoff by some yahoo who took the corner way too fast and didn’t hold his line – so I had to come to a complete stop and stepped out of my cleats for just 5 or 10 seconds – then I had a little trouble getting my foot back into the cleat, not losing more than another few precious seconds or so – but the main bunch was now smelling blood and had dashed on down the road - damn opportunists! Oh, yeah - I've done the same thing, I guess... :)

I saw Bryan take off after he got his cleats back in and asked if he was okay – but apparently, he didn’t hear me and didn’t know that I was also one of the guys that had been derailed by the crash. He hooked up with a couple of other guys, and I chased after them by myself, but was unable to bridge up to them – and they were unable to bridge back to the main pack, though they got fairly close. So Bryan and myself and another dozen or so guys just time-trialed back to the finish line – I put up a nice finishing sprint, throwing my bike over the line, as if I had just won the race – which might have happened, if not for the unfortunate crash in that left corner turn. Sigh... next time... At least I accomplished my main goal – not getting dropped in the first lap like Snelling the week before – and I successfully stayed in the main pack, often in that top 15 or 20 guys at the front for most of the race.

Bryan and I both had the same game plan for that final 2 miles – after making the hard left turn, we were going to both sprint up the next hill to get positioned in that top 10 to 15 guys. After that hill, the roads get more narrow - and they twist and turn and go up and down – meaning there would be very few opportunities for other guys to move up in the field. Finally, we were both going to unleash our killer sprints at the end and go for a Team Bicycle Trip 1-2 punch – but alas, ‘twas not to be the case – not this time...

But I felt pretty good after the race - given my limited training in the last week or two, combined with the young Cat 4 studs that surrounded me, I felt I could be just as competitive as anyone in that kind of race. Next time, we'll get some better results, I'm sure...