NCNCA Masters State (District) Criterium Championships, 9/6/2015

My lower back spasmed while I was cleaning up after breakfast. That's not what I wanted for the morning of my big race, so I quickly used my foam roller to massage the spasm out. Strangely, my back was fine during the race and it was my feet that were sore. 

My preparation for this race was very brief to say the least. The last two years I have prioritized track sprinting, where my longest race is no more than about 1 minute. So my coach, Jeff Solt, had a tough job trying to prepare me in just 4 weeks for this 50-minute race. It was the same course as last year, about 1-mile laps in a Pleasanton business area, The end of the race would tell how successful this training was.

I warned up on my trainer, after borrowing an appropriate quick release skewer from Mike (thanks Mike!). I also used the foam roller again, to be sure. There were 34 racers this year, similar to last year. The course was also the same, with a 1-mile four-corner course on smooth pavement in Pleasanton.

The first several laps were pretty easy, but soon after that there were continuous attacks by solo riders and two or three man groups. I tried very hard to heed my coach's advice to stay protected and not try to go with breakaways, but sometimes that's easier said than done. Because I also try to stay near the front of the field I sometimes ended up being the point of the peloton and thus was in the wind. In those cases I always tried hard to soft-pedal, and even stopped pedaling and took a drink, so as to force those behind me to pick up the pace instead of me. Sometimes this worked, sometimes I ended up perhaps working a little harder than I intended without really wanting to. But in general I felt great and only occasionally was I anywhere near my limit, so I was looking forward to the final sprint. 

With three laps to go the pace definitely picked up and people were trying to get into position. This is tricky because everybody wants to be in the same spot at once. I was near the front and had a perfect view of Daniel Shore (last year's winner) attacking us off the front, with another guy. But again, I had to hold back and just watch them extend their lead as I waited for the others to pick up the chase. Directly behind me was Eric Saltzman, who yelled at me to close the gap to them. As much as I wanted to I could only take a very short pull before I had to pull aside and let him or somebody else take up the chase. 

After their lead was big enough, sure enough, others started to leap ahead to catch them. Then to Eric's credit, with about one and a half laps to go, he took a huge dig to bridge up to the break. I was right behind him but again could not afford to try to go with him. I just had to hope we would catch them both or else I'd risk completely blowing up (as happened to Eric, who finished last). I sat up and waited for the others to chase. 

Once the rest of the field took up the chase I was able to slot in behind some of them and maintain a decent position from which I could hopefully sprint. But I was getting tired and the very fast pace made it hard for me to be fresh for the finish. It is always difficult for me to position myself yet not blow up. I was probably a bit too far back going into the last two turns, but we did catch the break, and Eric's teammate Jerome Nadel was able to leap ahead and win the race, while I sprinted hard just to get 14th. I felt Jerome deserved it as he had been working hard throughout the race. Congratulations! 

Our race was pretty clean, and I was very happy about that especially after last year's erratic team tactics. One guy did go down, but it was supposedly self-inflicted by his own tendency to overlap his front wheel with other people's rear wheels. This same guy, incidentally seems to have gotten away with getting two free laps before rejoining us; the rules only allow one.

So, what does this all mean? For me it was amazing that such a short preparation could yield a result so similar to what I would have likely achieved in past years where I did many months of workouts geared toward such races. It also reminded me that even flat crits at this high level of competition are very challenging for me. I had a lot of fun, the race was clean, and I am looking forward to next season! 

ADA Tour de Cure, 6/7/2015

By Dennis Pedersen

My 9th year in this fund-raising ride; wow, that is amazing to me! And I'm always amazed that, somehow, I manage to accomplish so much in the fight against diabetes thanks to all of the generous donors, many of whom have donated to the American Diabetes Association every year I've ridden! My 2015 Tour de Cure ride was awesome, and as successful and gratifying as my previous 8 rides!

While my own results in the 2014 Tour were very good ($1,140.00!), the overall HP team results last year were not. The HP team raised $9,795.72 in 2014, which is great, but still far short of our record of $32,626.74 (in 2012)!

So, for 2015 I was determined to make big changes, following last year's disappointing team results. I was able to recruit Frerk "Malte" Feller, our VP for the HP online store, to head up the team as Captain, along with Bill Kacmarsky who continued in his second year as co-Captain. This strategy worked well, as it not only brought in people who had never joined the team, but also gave us better access to other high-level HP executives and their influence. The 2015 HP team signed up 52 riders who raised $23,546.50! While not a record, it is closer, and a huge improvement from 2014!

Champions training ride, San Felipe Rd in San Jose's hills,
with a cool hawk feather I found.

For 2015, once again, Bill and I achieved official "Champion" status, since we raised over $1,000 (I raised $1,127.00, Bill raised $2,756.00!), so we were invited to attend a special Champions Celebration, on May 29th, at beautiful Silver Creek Valley Country Club. For the dedicated cyclists they again organized an optional pre-dinner training ride, up San Felipe Road, into the hills east of San Jose. Last year 4-time US Pro National Champion "Fast" Freddie Rodriguez led the ride, but this year he was scheduled to race at the huge "Philly Week," so he couldn't attend, and even though a busy workday forced me to ride solo since I had to start late, I still had a nice ride. I also got to meet new HP team member Tim Lin, who also raised over $1,000. Not present were Gayle Boesch, David Willis, and Gary Borchardt, also Champions. Congratulations!

Click here to donate!

Pescadero rest station.

On the morning of the big Tour de Cure ride I woke up at 4:00 am, finished the last-minute prep and car-loading, and drove off into the dark, gray morning. I knew that if our weather in Santa Cruz was gray and chilly, the same would likely hold true in Pescadero during the coastal leg of our 120k route (about 74 miles). I keep telling myself I will try a shorter route some year, but so far I've always done the longer route; it is more rewarding, and perhaps inspires greater support from donors... and it's the prettiest route.

The weather was nice at the 6:30 am start, again at HP's world headquarters in Palo Alto, and the light clouds there were starting to clear a bit. It turned out Fast Freddie had cancelled his Philly Week plans and was thus able to join us for the ride again, for his 3rd year. I rode with him for a while, along Alameda de las Pulgas, Alpine Rd and Portola Rd, until I got a flat tire on the Kings Mtn Rd climb. The "SAG" car arrived shortly after that, just as I was finishing up the repair... very welcome, as they also had a floor pump which is much nicer than the small pocket pumps!

After refueling at the Skyline rest station, I rode alone along Skyline Blvd, with the sun now shining over the valley, and dropped down HWY 84 at speed, glad I had my warm vest as it was chilly at times, and still gray and slightly misty when I arrived in Pescadero. There, at the rest station, I was able to catch a glimpse of Malte, riding with Neville Davey (a nice HP guy), as they set off for the next leg, up Stage Rd and HWY 1.

Chewing, Tunitas Creek Rd.

After a short break I set off after them on Stage Rd behind Fast Freddie. I finally caught Malte and Neville for good at the "Bike Hut" rest stop at the base of Tunitas Creek Rd. Neville took a few photos and we set off for the big climb up Tunitas back to Skyline.

The Tunitas climb is always difficult, but the weather was pleasant; not nearly as hot as last year. I set a nice tempo and got to Skyline ahead of the others.

Descending Kings Mtn for our return to HP, I again flatted... seems Kings Mtn has it in for me! Miraculously, I managed to not crash, and the SAG wagon again arrived just as I was almost finishing the repair, again helping with their nice floor pump! The remainder of the ride was nice, and I finished at about 12:30 pm, after riding 78.3 miles, with 7,921 feet of climbing (per Strava). Burned 2,823 calories too! (Strava overstates calories.)

The highly-valued post-ride lunch and party was fun, and the nice weather helped. I got some good food, we took a nice, though not complete, team photo (finally; we've missed that the last few years!), and I took off, knowing I had once again managed to do a little to give back.

15 of our 52 riders.

Interested in seeing what the ADA really does with the money we raise? Go to the ADA site and click on "Research & Practice" in the top menu, there's a ton of links you can go through. Some highlights:

• ADA-funded research. 
• Pathway Program (grants to researchers). 
• Core Research Program (grants to academic researchers). 
• Advocacy (lobbying governments to allocate funds for research and treatment). 
• Hot-line phone and online chat support for diabetics (info on meds, food, etc.). 

And, of course, running the above website, running fund-raisers (like Tour de Cure, plus others), plus printing books, flyers and such that newly diagnosed diabetics get from doctors and clinics, hosting screenings in local communities, Stop Diabetes @ Work programs, and more.

Thanks, see you next year!

Neville, Malte, Fast Freddie, me, and "John" at the Skyline rest station.

Salinas Criterium, 35+3/4, 5/3/2015

By Dennis Pedersen

This is one of the most grassroots-level races in the area, which suits me because I don't train specifically for crits anymore. The 4-1/2 turn, flat course helps me too. But the field of just nine 35+3/4 riders, combined with the windy conditions, meant it would be a real challenge for me.

After they blew the whistle, Jeremy Loader, (Cycles Fanatic), immediately took a dig and went off the front. I was not ready to commit that early in this one-hour-long race, so I waited for the rest of the pack to help. Three other guys took up the chase, and soon we were hard at work and a few laps later we caught Jeremy.

The other four guys were dropped, I think after the first lap, so it quickly became a race between just five guys.Soon we were taking turns pace-lining to maintain a high speed that would prevent the other guys from catching back on. This worked so well that we started to lap them. We even lapped some of them twice. I was very surprised to find that I was one of the guys doing the lapping and not being lapped! It was hard work for me, though, so I tried to save energy where I could.

As the race progressed I noticed that the only two guys making attacks out of our lead group were Dave Porter (Bicycle Blue Book) and Jeremy. I know Dave from other races so I knew to respect him. Jeremy I don't really know, but clearly he has a very strong aerobic engine. About halfway into the race Dave put in a very hard jump coming out of turn 4 that opened up a gap behind me which cut out two of our group. They were soon well off the pace and in about a lap or two we had almost a full straight-away lead on them.

We started to drop our pace a little bit after that and that is when Dave and Jeremy started to increase their attacks. I was weakest of the three of us so I am pretty sure they were doing their best to drop me. I will not say it was easy but every time they tried to drop me I was able to grab onto their wheels and stay with them. I couldn't afford to take a hard pull in our little paceline without fear of going too hard and leaving myself vulnerable to another attack by them. So sometimes my pace was a bit slow.

The last two laps of this race were totally fun to me, because they were very much like a match sprint at the track, something I am intimately familiar with and plays well to my strengths. I was smiling openly and enjoying myself immensely as we played cat and mouse, attacking, swerving from one curb all the way across the course to the other, sometimes slow, sometimes all-out. I was keeping an eye on them, constantly looking under my elbows, at their shadows, over my shoulder... anything to give me warning of their next attack. Attacks that I knew I would be coming.

On the last lap, Dave jumped into the second-to-last turn, and I jumped immediately on to Jeremy's wheel. This was perfect, and I was confident that I would be able to position myself well in the sprint. And so that proved, as Dave led Jeremy and me out for the sprint, I was able to come around both of them and cross the finish line with a nice gap.

On the top step of the Salinas Criterium podium.

I had considered racing in the 35+1/2/3 or 45+ race and the dynamics of that race would have been very different. The fields were larger, and the talent level higher. The larger field would have helped me in the wind, but the higher talent level would have made it more challenging in that way. Interesting to consider, and I may try that next time.

I won $30 and two T-shirts. Erik Petersen does a great job of keeping the entry fee low, so I made a $5 profit!