Berkeley Hills Road Race

By Brooke Miller
Date: May 14, 2006
Category: Women 1/2/3
Filed Size: About 40
Teammates: Elizabeth, Victoria, Bri, Holly and myself
Results: Brooke 2nd, Victoria 5th or 6th, Holly, Bri in the pack
Winner: Penny Avril -- Touchstone Climbing

This road race was a new one for me. It was a beautiful loop that we did four times with three good climbs each lap. I work hard to climb, but it does not come naturally to me, so I was looking forward to being tested on the climbs and the hill top finish. The first climb lasted about 3 minutes (momma bear), second was 1 minute or so (baby bear) and the third was the final climb that had the finish line at the top and was about 5 minutes (papa bear). The rest of the course was pretty easy and pretty uneventful.

At the start of the race, we had our pre-race plan to work out. I was excited to race with the development riders, because I had not gotten much of a chance to get to know them yet. Victoria can climb circles around me with her eyes closed and a gorilla hanging on her seat post- so she was definitely our go-to girl. We were going to ride for her. Our plan was that Victoria would be my perpetual shadow in that race, just focusing the whole time on sitting behind me and staying protected. The rest of the team was to guard Victoria and try and stay near me. The other women were also to help cover attacks if they could, but mostly, they were to sit in, hang on and have fun.

The field was not particular deep, as it was Mother's Day and a number of riders were missing. Touchstone was out in full force and those women can climb- let me tell you! So, they were clearly the team to control the race, especially since they did not race Cat's Hill as we all had. McGuire had a few riders and Lisa and Cynthia from Olympic Club were there, along with Jane Despas.

So the race started off slowly. I was certainly not feeling like pushing the pace and no one else seemed like it either. With a lot of strong riders missing, most people seemed content to just sit in and wait to see what the hills would do. We had a rider off the front for a while and Holly wanted BADLY to chaser her down. She kept getting up front and working way too hard. I tried to reign her in, but she was so fired up, it was hard to tell her to conserve. It was the first lap in a 70+ mile race.

Nothing happened until we just crested Papa Bear for the second time. This time, over the crest and into the descent, Jill from Touchstone attacked hard. No one responded. We still had a long race and she attacked on a downhill. I also began to realize that many people in the field had no idea that she was even off the front. She can descend quickly and soon, she had a sizeable gap on the field. When we reached the flats, Holly started to try and move up to chase her down, but I did not want her to. I figured that we could make some of the other strong riders work to catch her. Holly was not to be stopped, however and did more work than she should have. After a couple miles, Jane decided that she had had enough and attacked, looking like she was trying to bridge. I got on her wheel and let her pull the pack hard. I let her chase as much as she wanted. It became pretty clear though, that no one in the pack was going to chase other than her, so it was quite conceivable that Jill could solo the race if we did not do something about it. I hated the though of someone soloing a race because they attacked on a descent and did not get a reaction.

Jane was still on the front and I watched as her cadence started to drop and she was starting to slow. Then I decided to attack. It was not from the best position, seeing that I was sitting second wheel, but I did not care too much if I w as caught, I just wanted to start the chase and make some one in the pack work to get up to my wheel. So, I jumped pretty hard and swung wide away from the pack to try and keep them from getting on my wheel too quickly, and started gunning it. The group caught on quickly enough and I was just cranking along. I was keeping an eye on my powermeter to not go over my LT. I figured that we still had 30 miles and I just needed to chip away at her gap and not kill myself doing it. Fortunately, I did get some help from Holly on McGuire. She was working as hard as she could and taking pulls with me. Yukie from Los Gatos did some work too, but she was getting blocked by Touchstone riders. So, it was me and McGuire Holly doing the work.

We chased for maybe 10-15 miles, just chipping away. At this point, I knew that I was very vulnerable to an attack on the hills that were starting to come up. Jill was in sight and I knew that we were going to get her just short of Mama Bear. We catch Jill and nothing happens--we were back to the chill pace that lets my legs recover. As we went over the second climb, I am looking, but nothing is happening. Victoria is up front waiting. Watching. Nothing. As we got close to the big climb, with one lap to go after that, I found Victoria and told her to attack the big hill hard. We started the climb and she moved into good position. She waited until she had an opening and then she was out of the saddle flying hard at the hill. It was beautiful to watch!! She got a good gap on the field and made everyone jump hard to get going. I knew that she could not stay away as there was a long descent and she weighs nothing, but I also knew that she would be able to recover for the final climb and that she was making some riders burn some serious matches.

Sure enough, the pack caught her at the crest and she sat in. But the damage was done and the field was shattered into two. We were in the lead group of about 12 riders and the rest of the pack was back a ways. After she was caught, no one wanted to throw anything So, once again, we settled into a comfy pace and allowed the rest of the pack to catch up. Then we all rode along until the base of Mama Bear.

When we got to the last lap climbs, Maria Monica from McGuire attacked hard. She worried me for a second because she was looking like she was about to do some serious climbing, but I got on her right away. Then Penny attacked and this was legit. I had no time to do anything other than bust my butt with every single thread and ounce of energy that I had to get on her wheel. This was the three-minute climb and I was burying myself to hang on. I was not looking at the powermeter, or at anything other than her purple rear hub. My legs were burning. We were almost to the top. I glanced back and saw that we (or rather, she) had just opened a HUGE gap on the field and that it might just stick. She said to me, "are you going to work with me?" and I panted out a "yes... I... just..... neeed..... a.... second...." and then as we crested, I managed to pull in front of her and take a hard pull (well... probably NOT a hard pull, but as hard a pull as I could possibly muster) and we started to work together.

Then we got to the final climb. Penny slowed, I slowed and we started to climb matching pace. At first, the pack was out of sight and so I just put my power at my LT and started to climb at my pace. A pace I knew that I could sustain. Penny matched it and we were climbing side by side. Then Penny started to slow and slip behind me. Now, Penny was sucking my wheel and resting while I pushed the pace. It was a bad place to be in. We still had a lot of hill left, but a quick glance back showed the pack closing quickly. They were at the base of the hill and out of the saddle. I had no choice. I had to keep pushing. But it was killing me to be pulling Penny up the hill when she is SO much stronger a climber than I am. So, I turned to her and said, "wait a minute! Why am I pulling you up the hill when you're the climber?!" She seemed to ponder it for one moment before launching HARD on an attack that I could not even begin to respond to.

So, now it was me climbing to try and not get caught. I was getting caught. My head was down and I was focusing every ounce of my being into turning the pedals. Come one. Come on. Come on. I was just giving it everything that I had. Pushing and pushing. I looked back and Bev from Touchstone was out of the saddle and closing hard. I looked down, pulled deeper. Then the motorcycle ref came up next to me and said, "Come on! Don't give up second place!". He then said, "see that tent?". I did not look up. I could not look up. But, I nodded my head. "That is the finish. You can do it." "O...[pant pant pan].K.....[pant pant pant]". I shifted down two gears and popped out of the saddle. I found strength that I did not know that I had and I started gunning it for the finish line. As I crossed, I looked back and saw Bev, closing, but behind me. Barely. She and the whole pack had closed a BIG gap on me. But, I held her off.

Victoria was hot on their heels and finished 5th or 6th. She did great. Then Holly and Bri rolled in. After the finish, I was so dead that my lips started shaking and my whole body started to shake. I had been out of water for the whole last lap and it came to haunt me. Holly had given me her last sips of Clif Electrolyte drink, but that was it. I went over to a shady spot and collapsed and put my legs in the air. Katie came and brought me water and that helped. After a minute or two, I was fine. But oh my god did that last climb hurt! I loved it.