Team Safeway Finds Gold and Bronze in Copperopolis Mines

Copperopolis Road Race, Milton, CA
4/15/06, Mostly Cloudy, Mid-fifties, Dry, Light Breeze
Masters 35+ 1/2/3 (Field of 42)
Martin (1), Glerum (3), Hernandez, Maxwell, Pasco, Reede, Tafoya

So the hill is longer than I remember but not as steep. Maybe I just had that final 10% kicker lodged in my brain housing group to remind me not to do hilly races. But, after doing the Sea Otters and Copperopolis, I think I am going to have to review my previous statements about not doing races with hills in them or even the word "Hill" or "Mountain" in the name of the race (Berkeley, Cat's, Livermore, and certainly Mt. Diablo/Shasta/Tam).

After the first climb, the bagboys were all still attached. There were several attempts at forming a break. But, every time we got a guy in it (and certainly if MH tried to go) they got shut down. On the long straight through the fields I bridged up to Brian McGuire thinking he would be a good guy to be in a break with, he immediately sat up, I thought he was pulling a Hutch on me and testing my resolve, so I put my head down and kept on truckin'. I looked under my arm a minute later expecting to see him there and he wasn't. No one was there. I had what looked like a 100m gap but probably on 50m. Not knowing the course I eased back into tempo mode to recover and drifted back to the pack. When they caught me another break of five formed including Ron Castia (EMC), John Ford? (Spine), James Allen? (Bollo), Lucas Paz (East Bay Velo) and Kevin Metcalf (former USPS). Teams were well represented with one glaring exception...SAFEWAY. Someone bridged up, maybe Scott Derdenger (Galaxy Granola), MH looked for one of us to jump his wheel, I wanted to but just couldn't. He got across. Now there were six. MH put in a couple accelerations. The pack chased hard. They thought he was trying to bridge. I was pretty sure he was just trying to get me or Reed close enough to bridge so the break would stay. It worked. A rider jumped (maybe the CRC guy that was with us) off the left side. This time Reed and I were both in a better position, I jumped on his wheel and Reed let me take it and sat up to protect the front. I took the easy way to the break.

Now we were 8...for about 2 minutes, then Scott flatted. Lucas was a motivator and kept everyone fired up. Group think was we were better as 7 than individuals so we kept it together on the climbs. Worked well most of the time. Occasionally guys would skip a pull but I tried to make sure not more than one. Lucas and Kevin seemed to do the lion's share. I tried to time my pulls for downhills so I could soft pedal at 30+mph and look like I was working then hit the bottom with momentum and spin up a little way then "have to pull off" not able to finish up the rollers. Not knowing the course I wanted to conserve as much as possible but work hard enough to be a good member of the break and keep it away. We checked six often and thought we had a huge gap not seeing any chasers and felt overly confident when we went through another field on the first descent thinking it would provide us some concealment. The second time up the hill Spine disappeared, and now we were 6. Ron was also starting to show fatigue. On the second climb I thought we were going to lose him but he hung on and rallied for the third lap. Up the hill the third time. I sat on, going at the pace set by either Lucas or Kevin or Bollo. All seemed to have good spurts of energy left.

Then it happened. A dark rider (whose jersey surprisingly resembled mine) went FLYING by us. Taz was absolutely hammering. Lucas accelerated, Kevin went with him, Bollo joined in and I knew I just had to hang on. They (and by they I mean WE)couldn't even match Taz and certainly were not going to close the ever widening gap. I laughed and a huge smile spread across my face (right after I cursed him for taking away my chance to win but in reality we would have been caught had we not accelerated in pursuit so in the end it really worked out better all around). Now we were FOUR. We worked together and pretty hard, not hard enough to catch Taz, but I really wanted us to get second through fifth (we deserved it). Again, Lucas and Kevin really did the most work. I sat out every 4 or 5 pulls knowing that I had NO obligation to do anything with Taz up the road. And, I was in the cat bird's seat. I didn't have to work, my team was going to win, I should have the best legs for the final sprint if I could stay with these guys up the last little climb, and we couldn't see the group behind us so we might actually stay away. We barreled down the hill. Into the valley, the finish is coming.

Then with about 2km to go Chris D'Alusio joined us and played it perfectly. He sat fourth wheel...did I mention that some where between the top of the last climb and now Bollo got dropped so we were three? From a ways out Kevin jumped. I think he was trying to sucker someone else to the front. Didn't work. We looked at each other. Inside the 200m sign Kevin jumped again, I went with him, we had a small gap, Lucas couldn't hang, Chris had to make up the distance, Kevin crumped maybe 80-100m out, I hesitated and Chris had momentum, he went around us, I stood to chase, both my Quads knotted, I sat and dropped into a lower gear, spin, spin, spin, not making ground, hold on for third, cramping, too much wine last night, not enough water, I need a gel, is that my heart I hear?, the line, yes...third. Not bad for a fat guy on a hilly race! Man that felt good. And there was Dan, all recovered and smiling, the Delivery Man for today.

A well conceived plan, perfectly played, and teamwork out the ying yang. First and third, not a bad days work. On this April 15th the man paid Safeway!