Early in the season The Wife wanted to participate in the Pinole Team Time Trial, but was having difficulty getting a partner to form the team for the race. The first person who agreed to partner with The Wife decided to bail, and a backup was back and forth on the commitment. I agreed that if her partner fell through I would join her in the coed category. The woman who was on the fence came through, and I sat that weekend out. We have discussed the possibility of doing the race in 2008 as a coed team, but nothing firm, yet. To date, we have raced together only in ‘city line’ sprints, nothing formal.
Saturday we missed a golden opportunity to race with and against one another, though we did not find out until way too late. We were at San Ardo where The Wife was supposed to race in the W4’s and I was planning on another day of being the logistics and support person. But The Wife was not feeling the race, a bit under the weather, so she joined me in supporting her team, and a few others. When working the feed zone we ran into Flandria who had dropped out … from a combined W30+/M Ultra-Geezer field! The Wife can race 30+, I am an Ultra Geezer, so if we had known we could have done the dueling spouse thing in the bigger arena of the race. Too bad we had missed that they were combining; would have been fun.
In the absence of trying to outrun The Wife on the bike I used my time to say howdy to a few blogsters and other friends, pass some bottles of the good stuff in the feed zone, and get to the finish line to cheer on a few racers. Kudos to 1st time racer Linsey who sprinted out a win in the W4 field with a leadout from 2nd time racer and teammate Mason who finished fifth. Congrats to Alicat who took second in the W3 field. I had been hoping to see an Alicat/Doc Kim fight to the finish in that race, but Doc Kim was nowhere in sight as the field came to the line; we found her a few minutes later as she came in, the victim of a flat. Bummer, as she looked strong as she came through after each of the first two laps.
We may wander up to SF to watch folks duke it out in the Giro. Otherwise, other than the track we are taking a cool down period. We had nixed Mt. Everest Challenge already for this year, perhaps next year. I will ramp up in a few weeks so I can meet the obligation I made to race Mt. San Bruno climb on Jan. 1.
Update: In my post-weekend sleep-deprived state I neglected to congratulate Lorri. She ran three sessions of the Tri-Flo/Velo Girls development program this year, and in the three races there were two first place finishes and a fifth place. Awesome!
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Nice pic!
It’s fun to see how it ended as I have only a vague memory of those last brutal seconds.And thanks for the perfect feed. You were a star. Mike and I are both racing (and working the prize booth) at the Giro and would love to chat with you both. Come find us under the tent if you deide to come.
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nice to see you two out there!
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Ali – Happy to give you the feed. Wished I had been closer for your finish; I was down the road talking to one of the Tri Flow ladies who had been in a crash in the W4 field. From where I stood it looked like you got a small lead and then were fighting hard to keep it. That was one of the more hotly contested finishes we saw. Great drama.
Flandria – Good to see you, and get some time for chatting and cheering. How did your hunny fair?
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cyclistrick: Cool finish…really too bad I wasn’t there! Oh well. It was great to see such a good finish for Ali! And great to meet you all in person! I was a bit bummed after the race and left pretty quickly. I ended up driving a young local pro back to town who needed a ride, so we chatted about all sorts of cycling stuff, and it took my mind off of my flat day… at least it was a fun race while it lasted!
Cool photo, too.
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Kim – so sorry that you flatted. Glad that was all it was; had too many folks biting the asphalt out there, including a friend and former co-worker. When you were not in the pack, we were hoping it was mechanical or flat, and not a crash. Happy to see you coming up the road with the tube flapping out your back pocket. We did not stay long after that, either. Got the car from near the feed zone, dropped back to the start to return items and do a couple more errands, then we were on the road south to Arroyo Grande.
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Someday you will get to race together. I bet you can’t wait to hear your wife yell “hold your line!” to you
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Chris – we can race together on the track, but a mixed gender road race? You should have come out; it was sort of the blog-o-sphere end-o-season mixer. You could have jumped right in.
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W30+/M Ultra-Geezer field at San Ardo, for real?
Do the boys actually be able to race tactically without getting their testo-juice level too high and still make smart decisions? Maybe it’s just youngster thing, and wiser ultra-geezers would not have such problems… I do wonder how the race went for the field…do you know?
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Rick – I will come out and do a race in May or so next year. We can chat on what would be a good one when the time comes. It has to be a crit
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Chris – come on out. Take a look at the 2007 schedule of races; the order is about the same each year. You might want to skip Cats Hill; it will have one little hill you might not like
Twinkie – Welcome! Yes, the ran a combined W30+/M55+ field at San Ardo, apparently at the request of the ladies. Only 5 ladies; Erika, Linda, Phyllis, Ileana, and Angela. Angela can give a better account of how the boys acted, but I think most of us older guys can behave ourselves and not let the old testo take control.
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