San Dimas Stage Racing- M45+ by Wayne Stetina

4th in the hillclimb, 15 min 30 sec, nearly 45 seconds faster than last year, & 30+ seconds FASTER than the first woman. Although World TT champ Kristen Armstrong wasn't racing San Dimas this year. She beat me by ~45 seconds last year. Lindsey Blount won the hillclimb 33 seconds ahead of me, but hung on to win overall as well for the first time in 4 years.

7th in the 42 mi RR, very disappointed in my legs after the Hillclimb results. Had my Heart rate @ 180 for the first time in 5 years during the hill climb. Topped out around 165 during the RR, & made a serious tactical error by being too conservative & missing a 2 man break the last time up the 0.9 mile 200 foot climb w/ 2+ miles to the finish after the summit.. Also the race was shortened 2 laps 14 miles compared to the last 2 years I won this stage. The field was starting to detonate & everyone else was far more gassed than I realized.

3rd in the final 40 min crit - a great result for me based entirely on field positioning to enter the final turn in 2nd. Steve Strickler took the stage win & the sprint jersey after also winning both hot spot sprints in the RR.

GC: wound uip 5th by time bonus when the winner of the RR Larry Shannon leapfrogged from 5th to into 3rd place on the time bonus. Keith Ketterer was 2nd. National 50+ RR Champion Malcom Hill was ~10th

Wayne