About halfway into the 1/2 race Saturday in Napa. While I was in a small break, my back wheel started to feel loose in the "P" turn. I was able to nurse it in for 7th and after the race was surprised to see that the rubber had separated from the casing, 9" long. Got home pumped it up and a minute later the thing blew! Would it have made it another lap???

Sometimes we get lucky.

Great Ride

Today I was lucky enough to ride with the man that taught me everything I know about riding.

Me and Robert "Bob" Brooks in Big Creek

He's known all over the US, not only because he has set National Records in TT's or won multiple masters national titles over the years, but because he is an all around great guy and friend to all. If you know him, you understand what I'm saying and if you don't, it's your loss. It was great to ride with Bob once again.

Vinny and I met up with Bob and Eric Zentner at Shaver Lake (5300') and rode up to Kaiser Pass (9200'). For some reason Bob and Eric wanted to head down into Million Dollar Mile first and check out a waterfall. It's beautiful and all but to get to the darn thing you have to descend at least 1800' to get to it. And right now I'm 188lbs and have been a crit monster this year. So to start a ride with a descent to 3500' and have a summit of 9200' is a little silly to me.

The climb out of Million Dollar Mile is 4 miles long and gets as steep as 16-18% for about half of it. Vinny must have been feeling pretty good because I never saw him on that climb. Worked my way up in a 39x23 and chatted with Bob. On this ride it seems that you go downhill only to go back up and make the next climb a little longer or steeper or both! So, up MDM and down to Big Creek (4920').

The Big Creek climb is another 4 mile climb up to Huntington Lake (7000'). It starts off steep and gets steeper (+18%), but does get a little easier at the top. Never saw Vinny on this one either. I left it in the 21 and got to the top in 35min. Around the lake with some more little up and down rollers to Lakeshore, the town at Huntington Lake. We took a little break for a soda and refill on water. Then off to the next climb.

Kaiser Pass (9200') is a 7 mile ascent to the top. The first mile is always hard for me, but the next 4 are a lot easier. I started to push the pace after about 2 miles, only to have Vinny turn it up a notch on a little kicker and gap me. With 1.75 miles to go it gets steep again and it really starts to hurt the legs and lungs. The last 500m is brutal! You can see the top straight ahead of you but it takes 3mins to get there, at least 16%. I got to the top in 40min.

The view from the top

Once again down so we can go up. Down Kaiser and on to Tamarack Ridge (7500'). Tamarck is a series of 4 climbs. The second and last are the ones that hurt the most. I was all in on the last one and threw in the towel.

Now, all we had to do is descend back to the truck. At this point I just wanted to get home! My body was ready to shut down. Even the descent was killing me. I didn't turn the pedals over once. Barely made it to the truck.

The ride came out to 70 miles and over 10,000 feet of climbing.

I get to pick the next ride!

Santa Rosa 35+

Had a pretty sizable crowd at the 35+ race today, given that the District TT Championships were on at Satley as well. That meant we were missing some heavy hitters, but it was still pretty interesting race. Dirk Copeland in particular.

So they weren't letting me get away with anything the first 15 minutes, but they did let a five man break get away! That really bugged me. That break turned into just two guys but they had 30+ seconds on us.

After a few attempts I finally got away by myself to give chase. I knew that Dirk would show up, which he did, with Fonseca in tow. Me and Dirk started to reel it in, Fonsecan conceding any sprint. With four to go we caught the two. there were off the front. They let Dirk roll away a bit with two to go, then chased him. Then I attacked and Dirk was kind enough to not chase me. Sounds like the other three gave up, cause I was able to solo in from there for the win! It's been a while, being king of second place as of late(or helping the teammates). Glad that Dirk beat the others for second.

2 Wheel Crit

Next best thing to ditching in the grass is ditching onto cobblestones apparently. We had an 8 man break about half way through the p1/2 race today when Tore's tubular rolled off his wheel. I was on the back and was the odd man out as everyone drifted into the curb with overlapping wheels. I was very lucky, with almost no road rash, rolling over the median with cobblestones right after turn 1. A bruised hand is the worst damage. Blew the front tubular but the ZIPP survived to see another day.

Two free laps later, got back in the break, but it didn't last very long, coming all back together with about 10 laps to go. The wind wasn't particularly strong today, so was hard to stay away.

Came down to a pack finish. There was a two man CalGiant leadout that helped Briggs win it. Wishing I had tried to attack that last turn cause I was feeling good. As it was I held on to KKlein and Badia's wheels trying to close down Briggs' gap. I got 4th.

They gave me the most aggresive rider bottle of wine. While it will be well drunk, I'm not sure I deserved it. Lots of other attackers out there.

One last note: four out of the top five today were 40+ (PPenn was 5th). Justin said last night it would be a master's day. Guess he was right.

Was good to talk to Brian before the race to learn that he won the 35+ District Championship TT. Nice work Brian.

Congrats!

Congrats to Tim Bulter for getting his upgrade. Good job!
-mb