Cat's Hill and Cloterium - Scott's view

A quick report on the two races this past weekend:

Cat's Hill was great - one of the last great Norcal criteriums. In the eighties all the crits were held in downtown areas near shops and passers-by who could be almost be counted as crowds. Sadly, there are only a few of these left to treasure: Cat's Hill, Davis 4th of July, Burlingame, Santa Cruz, Giro di SF. There used to more but local business pretty much put the kibosh on them, so nowadays we find ourselves doing battle in corporate office parks in front of a few fanatical friends and family. But oh well.

We had a full crew representin' for the M35s. The first lap was shockingly fast and I thought to myself, "If we keep this up I'm a goner" but thankfully it was just first-lap jitters and we quickly settled into a pretty workable jam-up-the-hill-then-recover-for-a-lap routine. Nobody really laid it out there. I think there was a general fear of the heat and the hill, and I wasn't the one to start complaining about the nice pace. So we rolled around for a while. Finally things started to get interesting. The team did a great job covering or initiating just about everything, as far as I could see from my rearward vantage point. Dylan covered a fairly serious move with a few laps to go, which set us up for the finale. With 5 to go I started looking around to see how I could help and I found Dean. We were pretty far back, but I told him I'd take care of him for the last couple of laps and we went around like that until a couple laps to go. I figured I could pass everybody on the homestretch and get him to the hill with a ton of momentum and he could work it out from there. But next time I looked he was gone, pinched by somebody over the top of the hill. I slowed to find him again and found Larry instead, lurking at the back with two to go. Well, that'll work just fine, assuming Dean is somewhere behind him. So we went over the hill the penultimate time and at the bell Larry and I went past the field. I drove through the 1st and 2nd turn at a pretty good clip, but when I glanced down I saw I was gapping Larry. No matter, I thought, he's got Dean behind him so I didn't slow. We got to the hill going pretty fast and I swung off to let Larry take Dean up the hill. But when Larry went there was no Dean! Shit! Turns out I didn't need to fret; Larry let Chris Wire pass him over the top and rode him down the hill before dispatching him for the win.

Cat's Hill M35
1 Lawrence Nolan AMD-Discovery Channel Masters
2 Jeff Angermann AMD-Discovery Channel Masters
3 Brian Bosch Central Valley Cycling
4 Chris Wire Safeway / G.A. Communications
5 Daniel Martin Safeway / G.A. Communications
6 Billy Clark Morgan Stanley / 24Hr Fitness / Specialized
7 Steve Pelaez Adobe / Schwalbe / Lombardi Sports
8 Craig Roemer AMD-Discovery Channel Masters
9 Scott Fonseca Capo Forma/Vellum Pro Master Team
10 Dean LaBerge AMD-Discovery Channel Masters

Post mortem: I think it's really effective for us to soften up the field before the knockout punch, especially on any course that has obstacles like tight corners or small hills that stretch things out. Nobody wants to respond when their legs hurt.


Santa Rosa Cloterium was painful, mostly because I burned some personal matches to do it, and in the end I didn't get much out of it. I did the Pro 1,2 race. The course was that great downtown course with the bots dots. Yeah that one. 92 degrees with a stiff headwind on the backstretch, intensified by the buildings. 83 riders. I barely know anybody in these fields anymore except Sayers and a couple of old-school Sacramento boys. A couple of our guys crashed in the M35 race so did not partake. The race had moments of fastness but I was shocked more by the moments of slowness. At the risk of sounding like an old fart, I can't recall any flat dreamer crit EVER dropping below 24mph, especially with $2500 on the line, but this one did. It was stop and go go go, then stop and go go go. The heat and wind were tough. Sayers animated throughout. I tried to play a part but would overheat so bad with any effort that in the end I just gave up. Groups would go, be gone for 4-5 laps, then come back suddenly with one big effort from the field. Finally a decent group got clean with like 10 to go. We almost got them back before they opened it up to 20 secs with 3 to go. I kept expecting somebody to kick it up a notch but it was wall to wall creeping at the front. I guess everybody was blocking, and nobody else was interested in doing anything about it. I hate that crap and I got uppity about it, pushed my way past the wall, and broke free with 2 to go. All I wanted to do was close the gap and make a race out of it, but the malaise was so deep in the remaining bunch that nobody bothered to take my wheel despite my telegraphing my intent. I brought them back to 5 seconds before the heat got the better of me and I detonated. Field passed me before the last turn and I was done. I couldn't tell you who won.

Cloterium Top 3 Takeaway Tips
1. Do not start 90 minute crits in 90+ heat with just 1 bottle 2/3 full from yesterday's race
2. Skip the dual Sunday morning Bloody Marys, or at least reduce the spice
3. Stop talking smack when I can't follow through myself