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Mt Diablo Challenge
10/2/05
1:16:45
Mass start
Field: 1,100
Teammates: lots
Having ridden the course the week before, I felt
confident and I knew the course. The race started kind
of fast, but then everyone slowed down when we came up
to the first hill. On the little downhill section,
people were bouncing all over the place and many
people were losing water bottles. It was dicey going
through that first downhill part. On one of the
switchbacks, I tried to shift into my small chain
ring. My shifting system failed me, so I was stuck in
my medium chain ring. At the junction, I got off and
one of the rangers somehow fixed my problem with his
pocket knife. After losing all this time already, I
knew I couldn't catch Peter and Alex, so I saw Trevor,
but he sped past me. Near the top, I started to pick
up my pace a bit, but the wall slowed me down. It felt
good to be at the top, and they were throwing water
bottles and they were hitting lots of people who were unexpecting water bottles to be thrown at them. Alex caught three bottles, so he gave me one.
At 11:00, we lined up to go down the hill. We started late, because there was a crash at the junction. We started at 11:30, and Tieni Duro hung off the back, and made several stops, so our rims wouldn't be too hot. There wasn't much of a headwind coming down, which was nice.
Mt Tamalpais Hill Climb
9/17/05
23rd or so
Juniors 15-16, 17-18
Field: 25
Teammates: Peter, Aaron, Charles, Andy, Ye, Julian, John,
I got to the parking lot at 7:45 or so. My mom went to register me, and I got on my trainer. I warmed up for about 25 minutes, and then my mom had to move the car, so we put the trainer back in. I saw Peter and Aaron, and Charles, Andy, Ye, Julian, and John at the start. I got there early, so we waited for a couple of minutes. When the race started, the pace was easy, not too fast. As soon as we turned onto Bolinas-Fairfax, the pace picked up. About a mile later, Aaron, Peter and I were dropped. We rode with each other for a while until, I dropped off. I was riding by myself when I came to the rolling hills. I was hurting, and the hills didn't help. I finished in 1 hour and like 3 minutes or something. It was sunny, and my average was 12mph.
Adam Hodes
Northern California/Nevada Junior Criterium Championships
6/12/05
12th place
Juniors
Field: 20
Teammates: Peter, Alex
It was difficult to wake up at 5:00am this morning to get to the race, but we made it ok. As soon as I got to the course, Fred was setting up the cones around the course. My dad drove me around the course once, and then he went to the registration booth. Alex showed up soon after me, and we rode around the course about seven times. Near the start/finish line, we saw about 25 people in Wolfpak jerseys. That just made us want to ride the course faster, I don't know why, but we were going 20-25 for warm-up. Once Aaron arrived, we all got on our trainers next to each other and warmed up for 20 minutes. It was then time for Aaron to race in the Men's 10-12. Aaron told us his tactics and he went to the start/finish line. Alex and I got back on our trainers as we watched Aaron race. For the first few laps he stayed with the pack then with four laps to go, he broke away and stayed away. Congrats! It was then time for the Men's 13-14. I passed roll-out and so did Peter and Alex. Right from the start, the race was fast. Joel Schaffer (Alto Vela) launched an attack right from the start. He was caught right after the second turn. I fell to the back of the group and the pace was at 25. Schaffer and Tidwell (LGBRC) launched more and more attacks. They were swerving from one side of the road to the other. I was later informed that they were doing this so Lance Wolf smith (Woolpack) couldn't attack or win the sprint. I stayed on a Team Taylor wheel for most of the race. On the next lap Zach Wick (DBC) ran into the curb on one of the corners, but his bike bounced back and he stayed upright. I moved up a bit in the pack, because I heard Rick and Jason yelling at me. Peter was still comfortably hanging in there with the pack. Alex and I were dropped, but we caught back up with the pack. A couple of laps later (I forgot all about lap cards and I forgot to look at them) I saw Alex drop off the back and Peter was struggling. I went up and pulled him back into the pack, and then I was just too tired to keep going. I waited and I saw Schaffer puke and drop out. I thought that he was going to win. Anyway I hopped on some Team Taylor guy's wheel. He pulled the whole time, but it was quite annoying being behind him, because he kept pretending that he'd won the race. He would all of a sudden sprint and throw his arms up in the air, and start talking to himself. I passed him (I don't think he knew I was behind him) and he looked quite embarrassed. He soon caught me and he sprinted for the line and I was right behind him. Had I known this was the last lap, I might have sprinted around him and taken 11th place. Lesson learned for my next crypt, look at lap cards and don't be distracted by people yelling at you. Congratulations again to Aaron for winning the race!
Snelling Road Race
2/26/05
Place: DNF - crashed
Juniors 13-14
Field: 25
Teammates: Peter, Alex, Aaron, Lily, Nick R.
I had a nice 15 minute warmup on my trainer next to Alex. We went to go register and do the junior rollout. It was really foggy and about 45 degrees. Then we went to go search for the rest of our team. We found them and talked to them a little bit about what we were planning to do today. We went to the start, and we found out that the race was delayed 15 minutes. Someone said that all Velo Promo races started like this. They are always delayed. As of course, this one was too. We started around 8:55 and we were supposed to go neutral for 4 miles, until we crossed with some road. No one really knew where the race really started. Once the pace picked up and some people were dropped, I think they figured it out. The SAG wagon and CHP officer had busy jobs today. There were around 8 crashes in total for the 13-14 juniors race. Two of the 8 crashes were in the neutral zone. The hardest part was probably going up some big hill right after we started. I had plenty of energy, and was ready to cover any attacks. Suddenly, there was a crash right in front of me. Luckily, I was able to swerve around to the complete other side of the road and manage to not fall over. So far, no Tieni Duro riders were involved in any crash. I have to say that we knew what we were doing probably the most out of anyone in that junior field. It was crazy! People were swerving in and out hitting people! Peter almost crashed and so did Aaron, people swerving into them. Wolf Pak had like 8 riders, 5 were swerving and crashing into other people. We covered some attacks by Los Gatos and the guy with the white and red Trek 1000. We all fit onto the bridge with no problem at all, it really surprised me. No one crashed on the bridge. I am really amazed! Even Peter said he was amazed after the race. The hill right after the bridge was tough. Riders were again all over the place, and a Wolf Pak guy who had already crahed once, sort of nugded me off the side of the road. I tried to roll into a ball as fast as possible, but it didn't really work to well. The CHP guy came up and asked if I was alright. I said I was alright, but that I knew I wouldn't be able to catch the field. What was really nice was that Alex stayed behind and was there to help me if I jumped back on my bike, wanting to catch the field. Thanks again Alex! We just rode the rest of the lap together, and we stopped and watched at the finish. I hurt my hip, my knee, my elbow and my other leg. I heard someone say that this was the most dangerous race they've evr been in. I might skip next year's race on this course.
Pinole TTT
2/20/05
Place:???
Juniors
No Field (TTT)
Partner: Aaron
I arrived around 9am at the Boat Launch. As we pulled in to the park, I saw how the race officials were starting riders. It was a mile and a half drive to the parking lot. Aaron soon arrived as I was setting up my trainer. He set his up, and we rode a good half-hour next to each other. He had forgotten his racing license, so his dad had to go back home and get it. We made it in time to the starting line, though. There were about 5 teams ahead of us. A lot of Tieni Duro was there at the line, cheering everyone. The guy counted down, and we were off. I happened to clip in first, so I took the lead. I figured I was pedaling a little too fast for the start. We were going about 20-25 mph. I pulled off, and Aaron pulled through. We were going steadily by the reservoir and down the hill into Richmond. We turned onto the road the marshals were pointing us to, and we pedaled up and down those couple hills pretty quickly. Then on the big hill that leads down to Bear Creek Road, I seemed to be loosing energy, or Aaron started to gain energy. He opened up quite a big gap, and he was forced to slow down. We were moving fine down that hill, and onto that next road. On those back roads, he seemed to always open gaps, and I was becoming quite frustrated with myself, for not being able to stick with him. This happened on most of the hills, except the last big one, don't know the name, but I was becoming very frustrated. On the last hill, I pretty much died. I was pushing my hardest (we did pass some guys). Lots of people were cheering us on, on the last hill, and I thought it was the end, but Aaron kept going, so I stayed with him. Luckily, he was right, because the finish was a kilometer away. I think we finished in a little under an hour. It wasn't raining, so I was really happy. I heard that Peter and Alex, actually clipped out and put there feet on the ground thinking it was the end on the last hill. I'm disappointed and I'm sorry Aaron for not showing my best today. Sorry again, and thanks for riding the race with me.
Cherry Pie Criterium
2/06/05
12th Place
Juniors 13/14
Field: 27
Teammates: Alex, Peter, Aaron
I arrived around 7 and in brutal pain from yesterday's crash on the track. Once I started practicing the loop, I noticed my knee was not hurting as much. I could hit 30 mph on the downhill and around 22 mph on the flats. I barely passed the junior gearings test. Soon after, the race began.
The pace was very fast to start at, around 25 mph on the downhill and flats. The 15/16 and 17/18 soon dropped us. The 13/14 peleton was a mess. People were riding on the side, in the middle and not able to keep their lines on the turns and not able to ride in a straight line. People were attacking and then coming back into the field two seconds later.
Peter, Aaron, Alex and I formed a paceline after I almost crashed the same way I did on the track. We passed the field, but we saw three Los Gatos 13/14 in the 15/16 and 17/18 pack. After we started to form our paceline, the juniors in our field started to think more about attacking.
We kept on riding in our paceline. We kept on doing this for pretty much the whole race. Soon enough, we were on the last lap. We didn't really send Peter out; he just started getting further from us. Coming onto the last hill, I tried to chase down as many juniors as I could. I managed to pass a couple, though I wasn't able to get any points for the Junior Points Series. It was a cold day, and we rode 10 miles in 30 minutes. My average was a bit under 20 mph.
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