Wednesday, March 24, 2010

some-mora-zamora

This last Sat. (3-20) was my first race of the 2010 season. Snelling was 'sposed to be but I didn't even know reg. had opened until after it sold out in something like 1 or 2 days! Oy.
So Zamora it was. Located north of Woodland which is located north of Sacramento, Zamora is a little intersection that you will miss if you blink but most NorCal races seem to be that way. Don't want to irritate too many neighbors now.
So, turn off the freeway and roll along the rolling rollers to Bariani Winery, which is where the registration is and the start/finish takes place.
The course is a 10 mile loop on pretty good pavement actually and in the Springtime the area looks just like the default on my desktop, and probably yours too if you have a PC. You know the one; rolling green hills with the mountains in the background. This place looks just like that. Of course by June it'll be an UGLY brown just waiting to catch fire so it can go on a major rampage. But for now, it's really pretty.
So I get there a day early 'cause I don't want to spend the money on a motel, especially considering I'm by myself: no one to share expenses, so I took a tent and some backpacking stuff for cooking and it was good. I decided to ride the course lazily and just check it out to make sure there was nothing of immediate concern for the next day and stopped to chat with a couple of guys marking the finishing straight. You know, 2K to go, 1K, 500 meters, 200, and 100. Turns out one of them is Mark Switters, Adam's dad. For those of you who may not know who Adam is, just know that everyone involved in bike racing knows who Adam is. Chell and I had the pleasure of dining with Mark and his bride in (I think) Allentown, PA a couple of years ago when Micah went to Nationals. WRONG!! Just checked Google maps...Somerset, PA is where we ate. Anyway, chated with Mark and another guy who was helping out. Real nice guy but had a bit of an accent and it wasn't the easiest thing for me to understand, especially since I've become half deaf in one ear due to MANY electric guitars and kinda can't hear out of the other one. Wellllll, it turns out the fellow with the accent is Mr. Bariani! So now I'm glad I asked him if he thought it would be OK to pitch a tent instead of just doing it and acting as if I owned the place...sorta like some cyclists I know.
Anyway, got all setteled in, listened to some cool jazz and went to sleep. For awhile. A little, short while. Seems they have hoot owls at the Bariani Winery. Loud hoot owls that like to hoot back and forth to each other most of the night. In morse code they were spelling out the letters K followed by two T's. In music notation it would be an 1/8th note followed by two 16th notes tied to a quarter note followed by an 1/8th note rest, an 1/8th note, an 1/8th note rest and an 1/8th note! If you REALLY have to know what it sounds like, ask me the next time you see me.
Needless to say, I didn't quite get the nice long sleep I had hoped for. Ah well.
Morning comes and it's race day, baby! Got quite a few looks as I was frying up french toast with the morning coffee but all was good. Warmed up and went to the line for the start. 50 plus racers in the 55+ field! FIFTY PLUS!! Over 50 guys at least 55 years of age! Unheard of. Two years ago I did this race and we had something like 11! Yikes!
The whistle blew and off we went, all 50 plus of us. The Uber Geezers are coming out to play this year.
Anyway, hung with the leaders all the way to the KOM ( king of the mountains) hill when they really upped the pace and I got blown out the back. Nothing new here but normally it happens about 7 miles back down the road so I kinda felt good 'bout it.
So now I'm all alone, chasing, going after that perverbial carrot about a quarter mile up the road and by the 3rd of 4 laps I'm starting to hurt and am getting tired of being alone and thinking about packing it in. But I remember Bubba, who is parked in front of me back at the parking lot and am remminicing (sp), reminded of his liscense plate which says, NVRGVUP. For those of you who may not know who Bubba is, EVERYBODY in NorCal racing knows who Bubba is. Renoites know that he is a coach at Galena HS. Never give up...never give up...Yeah, yeah, yeah...I'm ready to give up. Then I remember how Greg LeMond would always say to finish 'cause you never know what might happen, blah blah. Even coach Mel's words are racking my ears. "You'll never know how to win if you never learn how to finish." Not that I've never finished a race. I've finished almost every race I've done. It's just that I don't feel kike doing another 10 miles by myself knowing it won't make a difference as far as my overall placing.
So I'm heading up towards the KOM when the big boys come flyin' by me and when the dust settles lo and behold, there's two guys just up the road. Well, at least peddle up to them and see who they are, if they're even in my race, if they're going to finish or pack it in like I want to. Aw, mannnn...it's a Webcor guy in my race and a 45plus who's been dropped as well. Webcor?Webcor? Anybody but Webcor. AND, they announce that they will, indeed, be finishing. Now I HAVE to finish this stupid race 'cause there's no way I'm letting a Webcor guy beat me unless it's fair and square.
Dude had huge quads. Ripped.Veins bulging out and all...jealous I am. Looked to have quite the motor. Even though he would fall back anytime the road tilted upwards, me thinks this guy is playing possum. Didn't matter as he would always pace himself right back up to us in no time. So after the KOM for the last time we have a straight road for about a mile or two, then a left turn and approx. 500 meters ( 1/4 mile ) to the finish with rollers thrown in just for fun. Welllllll, I make sure that I finish my turn on the front at about 100 meters, ( 100 yards ) before the left hand turn so that I won't be on the front when the heat gets turned up. Sure enough, they both come around me and we make the turn and Webcor just puts the hammer down! From a sitting possition. Drills it. BUT, I'm expecting this so I jump around the 45+ guy and get on the wheel of El Webcor Dude and try my best to stay there. Almost got dropped but caught back on and I'm getting ready to jump around him at 50 meters when he SITS UP! What? He later said he thought he dropped both of us and had the sprint in the bag but he never bothered to look around to make sure. So I caught him by suprise and by the time he realizes it, it's too late and I beat him for something like 40th place!!!
So we cool down, shake hands and lie about how much FUN we had suffering out there when I ask his name. "I'm Lothar" says he. Lothar? LOTHAR? "Dude, You're a legend." Says I. He says he's been around awhile...ever so humble. This guy's been killin' it for a long long time. Hence the quads! But, I not only beat Webcor in the sprint, I beat Lothar as well, even if it was for 40th!
So my first suffer-fest of the new year ended pretty good, all things considered and I just can't wait for this weekend when I get to do it all over again. Only this time I'll be staying at the fabulous Motel 6 where they'll leave the light on for me.
NVRGVUP! L8R