The only local race of the year and what a better way to arrive at the start line than by riding your own bicycle. At 7:00 am I rendezvoused at Peets in Mill Valley with Spence and Alex from the AC junior team.45 min and '1500 of climbing later.....the three of us pull off at the pantol ranger station on the shoulder of Mt Tamalpais, contemplating the slew of automobiles driving by with cycles and passengers warm and toasty inside. Moments later we dove into the redwoods and carved the drizzly, rain soaked, descent to the coast.
I arrived at the Stinson Beach registration soaking wet....White socks blackened with road grime, toes swimming in shoes masquerading as aquatic sanctuaries, bikes that want to be boats and two junior racers looking like they just swam out of the ocean with their bikes.
So Began the ill timed cool down as I headed toward the start line.
Through chattering teeth I heard the whistle blow, and we were off, but all I could think about was my bladder about to burst and how warm it would be if I just pissed myself. I was planning on peeing off the bike, but by the time I was warm enough to do so, we were at the base of the climb and I was fish tailing across the cattle guard trying to keep it upright. I guess no urinating for me.
The bottom of Bo-Fax is a steep twisty kick in the face. I ride it a lot and these guys don't...so when they hit it at 500 watts I was just fine letting myself dangle off the back. About 6 min later the entire field simultaneously imploded and dropped off the face of the planet, leaving only six of us still able to ride a decent tempo...out of which I was last.....The two leaders were about 20 meters ahead and pulling away gradually.... Behind them were three riders, the heaviest being maybe 140 lbs and that was before his pre-ride morning 3lb miracle plastic porta john-weigh loss program, were attacking each other while I rode steady. I was gaining ground biding my time, waiting for one of them to crack. When one of them fell off the pace...I picked it up, and by the time we crested the 6km climb to the ridge I was hot on his heels only about 3 seconds back....then he had a mechanical or forgot how to shift. ...... poor timing, but hey Ive been there myself on more than one occasion this season and it sucks. That was pretty much the end of him as I was sure to keep chasing the riders in front of me....
The chase was on but with visibility low and legs whimpering...I fell into the trap of having no one to push me but, well.......me! It ended up being a lonely and painful ride for fifth, up and over the sisters, into the mist...Pretty sure I was going fast.....but Its hard to chase people you can't see...I ended up losing a little over a minute to the winner and a lot less to the rest.
Congrats to Jesse Moore, of Cal Giant, on the win.............super ride.
Thanks to Chad at Above Category for letting me rock the Moots RSL and Lightweight Ventoux's. The Moots was an obviously choice for my 168 lb mountain ape figure to bash on while still remaining the most supple and comfortable bike on the planet up the rough and tumble famed B0-Fax climb. This sub 15lb masterpiece is constructed entirely out of earthly metal and as far from China's resin filled cookie cutter molds as you can imagine...It comes in any color you like and looks best nude.
And thanks for the sweet photos.....Anthony Little gets the photo credits.
The AC Juniors represented as well, I think they all had top 10 finishes in their respective categories.
Spence
Jack
Alex
Skyler
Bjorn
So Began the ill timed cool down as I headed toward the start line.
Through chattering teeth I heard the whistle blow, and we were off, but all I could think about was my bladder about to burst and how warm it would be if I just pissed myself. I was planning on peeing off the bike, but by the time I was warm enough to do so, we were at the base of the climb and I was fish tailing across the cattle guard trying to keep it upright. I guess no urinating for me.
The bottom of Bo-Fax is a steep twisty kick in the face. I ride it a lot and these guys don't...so when they hit it at 500 watts I was just fine letting myself dangle off the back. About 6 min later the entire field simultaneously imploded and dropped off the face of the planet, leaving only six of us still able to ride a decent tempo...out of which I was last.....The two leaders were about 20 meters ahead and pulling away gradually.... Behind them were three riders, the heaviest being maybe 140 lbs and that was before his pre-ride morning 3lb miracle plastic porta john-weigh loss program, were attacking each other while I rode steady. I was gaining ground biding my time, waiting for one of them to crack. When one of them fell off the pace...I picked it up, and by the time we crested the 6km climb to the ridge I was hot on his heels only about 3 seconds back....then he had a mechanical or forgot how to shift. ...... poor timing, but hey Ive been there myself on more than one occasion this season and it sucks. That was pretty much the end of him as I was sure to keep chasing the riders in front of me....
The chase was on but with visibility low and legs whimpering...I fell into the trap of having no one to push me but, well.......me! It ended up being a lonely and painful ride for fifth, up and over the sisters, into the mist...Pretty sure I was going fast.....but Its hard to chase people you can't see...I ended up losing a little over a minute to the winner and a lot less to the rest.Congrats to Jesse Moore, of Cal Giant, on the win.............super ride.
Thanks to Chad at Above Category for letting me rock the Moots RSL and Lightweight Ventoux's. The Moots was an obviously choice for my 168 lb mountain ape figure to bash on while still remaining the most supple and comfortable bike on the planet up the rough and tumble famed B0-Fax climb. This sub 15lb masterpiece is constructed entirely out of earthly metal and as far from China's resin filled cookie cutter molds as you can imagine...It comes in any color you like and looks best nude.
And thanks for the sweet photos.....Anthony Little gets the photo credits.The AC Juniors represented as well, I think they all had top 10 finishes in their respective categories.
Spence
Jack
Alex
Skyler
Bjorn
Nice work! I made the same dumbass decision to ride over. I did not feel my fingertips until halfway up Bofax, which made shifting on Di2 a bit tricky. I could not feel the shift buttons--I had to just push my finger and see what happened, and then move it and push again based on the first result. When my group exploded at the bottom of Bofax, I could only watch and plod along behind. Fortunately, most of them subsequently cracked.
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