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Adam Hodes
Pinole TTT
3/26/06
55:40
Juniors
Teammate: Alex
I met Alex at 8:45 at registration. We registered and they were playing a U2 song from the loudspeakers at registration. We warmed up together at Alex's car for about a half hour, and then we rode over to the start. While waiting for the start, we saw a rider who had crashed and his shorts were badly ripped and his arm was covered in blood. We started at 10:13 and we started faster than I wanted to. I was half dead when we turned onto Castro Ranch Road. We had passed the San Jose guys who started a minute before us on the downhill into Richmond. The San Jose guys caught us on the steep little hill right before the neighborhood. Then we passed them again on the uphill through the neighborhood. We went downhill fast and we carried the momentum on the flats. We saw the Tieni Duro ride go the other way. On baby bear, my lower back was hurting, so I told Alex to pull for a little so I could rest and stretch it. Then on the downhill, I pulled through and led to the middle of mama bear. Then Alex pulled through and I asked him how we were doing on time. (We rode this course last week, and to beat 56 minutes, we had to beat 42 minutes when we would be at the top of mama bear). It was like a checkpoint. At the top of mama bear, I didn't think we could break 56 minutes, because we were at 43-44 minutes. But on the long downhill, we went real fast, and we carried our momentum onto papa bear. When someone told us that we had a half mile to go, and we were at 54 minutes I had a feeling we could do it if we went hard. I was pretty much dead, and by the time we were on the downhill towards the finish I sprinted to finish next to Alex, because the time is timed by the second man across the line. Our estimated time based on our timers was 55:40. The weather was nice; it was a little cold, and windy on the flats. I was very happy with this time, because we beat last year's time by 4 minutes. After the race, we rode back down to our cars at registration.
Snelling Road Race
2/25/06
17th (according to Alex)
Juniors 10-14
Field: 38 (according to Alex)
Teammates: Peter, Alex, Nick
I didn't have school last week, it was ski week, so we drove up on Friday, in the morning, hoping to be able to ride the course in advance. We arrived at the Merced-Yosemite Travelodge at 2pm. We drove up to Snelling and at 3 we rode what we thought was the course. We came back 45 minutes later, having got lost twice, and having thought we did not ride the right course. Many of the streets did not have street signs, and when I saw the route map Saturday morning, I knew we didn't ride it correctly. Peter and Alex came in around 6pm and we all went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant.
We got to the course around 7:20ish. We got our numbers and we did rollout. I rode on my trainer for 30 minutes warming up. Meanwhile Peter got two flats before the race even started, so he didn't have time to warm up. We met with Nick, and then we lined up. Wolfpak had about half the field (19 riders or so) in our group and Davis had 10 or so. The race started nice and easy with the neutral part. Before the race started, so still on neutral, a velo promo guy made us stop. None of us knew what was happening. Five minutes later, they let us go. No riders passed us, and we couldn't even see the 15/16s. Whatever. So the real race started. The pace was around 17 and we were strung out in a single file line. Going up the feed zone hill, someone attacked. Since I was sitting right behind the guy, I was able to accelerate before everyone else, and stay with him. He gave up right away though. So we continued around the course, and on the flat section on Los Cerritos, Tisdell attacked. He was off the front for 30 seconds and then he gave up. The rest of the way around, it was pretty calm, because the 4s, 3s, and some other group were passing us, so a motorcycle neutralized us for a long time. We passed through the finish with all of us near the front. Tisdell, Peter, me, Alex , and Nick. This lap was filled with accelerations and attacks, primarily on the hills. Peter was pulling for a while, and then pulled off, and realized there were no riders behind him. He started to accelerate, and he had a good size gap. I went to the front to help block for Peter. Soon, a little kid tried to bridge the gap with me right on his wheel. Then some Davis guy, tried to bridge. I sat on his wheel and he managed to bring the group up to Peter. Right after that, Tisdell attacked. Tired from my blocking and from the first lap, I fell off the back with 1km to go. Further up the road I saw Alex and I tried to catch him before the finish to talk to him. He finished 10 feet in front of me. Overall good day. Good job Peter. (Peter got 2nd).
Cherry Pie
2/12/06
12th
Juniors 10-14
Field: 40
Teammates: Peter, Alex
I warmed up with Peter and Alex for 30 minutes, and the whole time we were wondering where Westring was. (Westring is Aaron). We all passed rollout and we lined up behind Zack Wick and Joel Schaffer. The race started fast, I don't know how fast I don't have a computer, but the little barricades were being dropped like dead chickens. One goes, then another, and another.
We got to the hill for the first time and I was in maybe 10th position. Tisdell attacked out of the corner, charging up the hill. I was in the wrong gear and was spat out the back. I caught the group again at the bottom of the hill. I had barely enough time to move up, before Tisdell attacked.again. Once again I couldn't match his speed. I caught them again at the bottom of the hill. This series of events occurred throughout the race. With one lap to go I was feeling good somewhere in the middle of everybody. But then we got to the hill, and Tisdell went full gas. I came in 12th position and Alex came in right behind me in 13th position. This race was difficult because Tisdell attacked each lap, and the little barricades (Wolfpak) would brake before each corner. Overall I had fun.
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