San Ardo Road Race Report

From last years start.
Photo Credit: www.procyclingphotos.com/san_ardo/2008/men/

Saturday, August 22 found me punching holes in my jersey while sitting on my truck's tail gate in the small Salinas Valley town of San Ardo. I've always had a fondness for this race, maybe because it was the last race I raced back in the 80's when I gave up bicycle racing the first time. In the last 4 years I've been back a few times with this being my first race as a NorCal racer. The irony here is that I figured the drive to San Ardo would be quicker and closer, as it is a NorCal race, and I now live in the NorCal. What a surprise to find out that San Ardo is almost exactly the same distance from our home in the Napa Valley as it was to our previous home in the Antelope Valley of SoCal - around 230 miles away.

I decided to race the Masters' Cat 4/5 race and it was set to go off at 9:05. By 8:00 I was on my bike warming up by riding a part of the race course backwards. I like to get about an hour in for a warm-up and I prefer to ride my bike around the course whenever possible as opposed to attaching my bike to a static trainer. I ended up getting close to 12 miles in before the start of the 47 mile race. As usual, I've got a MapMyRide link and map at the end of this post.

San Ardo's course is a 23.5 mile loop around the farm land of the Salinas Valley. The race organizers always list the race as loops of 21 miles, but my Garmin has always shown each loop to be closer to 24 miles. The race is advertised as flat but it does have a couple of sprinter's hills embedded in the course, and it seemed that most of us dropped to our smaller chain ring on one of the first hills. My Garmin says we climbed a total of 1585 feet in the two laps of 47 miles that made up our race. MapMyRide shows a climb of 912 feet so I'm guessing the real climb data is somewhere between the two - my legs sure felt like the Garmin was the more correct of the two; started feeling some slight cramping in the finishing sprint.

After the usual words about the course from the race official, we were off. You start almost immediately going uphill but it is very gradual. The race starts in town right in front of the high school and heads across a bridge over the Salinas River. It gradually climbs past the feed stop and up the overpass for the crossing of the 101 freeway. 50 guys were listed as starting the race but the final results show several no shows. I looked around the peloton and it seemed like we had close to 50 guys. The pace at this point was pretty easy. I did my usual routine of staying near the front but not trying to stay so close that I had to do any work at the front. In any case, the speed was relaxing as all knew that we would have two laps for this race.

Just before 3 miles the first hill crests out and you level for just a short time and then start a 2nd hill. This one is steeper than the first and it is here that I saw and heard others dropping to their small chain ring, including myself. Compared to a true hill course, these two initial hills are no big deal but by the time you come around them a second time, the hill climbers are attacking and you're driving your bike over them in the big ring - it's good for getting your heart rate up and mine topped out at 175 bpm, which is pretty good as my max is right around 180-181 bpm. After mile 5 you hit the top and start a long decent of about 6 miles, with just a couple of rollers to add excitement as someone will always attack on them. With a course so devoid of hills, sorting can only happen on the big ring rollers and pretty much only on the 2nd lap. At around mile 11.5 you cross a bridge over the Salinas River again and start a gradual ascent that will last all the way to the starting or finishing area. Mile 13 brings another sprinter's hill and is a good spot for someone to make an attack. Lap one though, we went neutral as the Cat 3 leaders started passing our peloton, followed a couple of minutes later by their peloton. I was riding near the front so I missed the crash that occurred during the fracas of the two groups meeting each other. I heard it took several of our guys down but that all got back in the race - thankfully no one hurt. Staying near the front has its advantages in avoiding crashes. It is also helpful because in a flat race like this one, I can respond to any attack that takes place. The downside of staying near the front is that I tend to get over excited and end up pulling the peloton around which I did, way too much, in lap 2.

Lap 1 ends uneventfully, if you don't count the crash, and lap 2 starts with a bang. Immediately the climbers attack on the first 2 hills of the course. I'm still 180lbs+ so I really feel the exertion that's needed to stay with the leaders. As we crest the 2nd hill I'm still there, about 15th from the front. I take a quick look back and think I see most of the group, I couldn't tell if we shelled anybody off the back or not. At this point I rotated on to the front and nobody came around me so it would appear that I would be pulling the peloton for a bit. Actually, rather than work hard, I took this opportunity to just ride at my pace and recover from the hard exertion we had just put in cresting the first hills. After crossing the bridge a second time, guys had finally gotten tired of my 20mph cruise and came around me on the left. The pace immediately went up as we headed for the sprinters hill at mile 13. Boom - off they went and I stayed in my big ring as I jumped out of the saddle and started up the hill. We came over the top and I'm still sitting pretty at around 10th place or so. Somebody next to me asks if we dropped anybody on that surge - I take a quick look back but answer, "dunno." I still couldn't tell if we dropped anybody as the peloton seemed unchanged. This was a strong group of guys for a 4/5 race. We averaged over 22 mph with a top speed of 37 mph so we weren't lolly gagging on this course. Quite the contrary, there were a large number of surges to see if we could break the peloton into manageable groups - very tiring.

Somewhere around mile 40 or so, I stayed with a couple of flyer attempts but nothing too tough, just enough to wear you down a little. At about mile 42 the guys were content to just sit in at around 22 mph and it looked like it was going to be a mass sprint at the finish. Guys began to cheat up and around and crowd the front of the peloton but no one wanted to attack. I had felt a little cramping on the last sprinter's hill so I knew I wasn't in any condition to attack myself and was now a little concerned about my ability to sprint up the small hill, created by the freeway overpass, that marks the finish area. I tried to maintain my position at the front but I kept slipping gradually back to around 15th place as we moved through the town with only 1k to go or so to the finish. It was here something strange happened. We overtook the rear guard of the Cat 3s. Our peloton swallowed them up but rather than move over as the Cat 3s should have done, they increased speed and stayed in the front group of 15. If anything they started blocking our sprint group. I'm still not sure what exactly was going on but I did see one of the young Cat 3s turn completely around on his seat and scream at our guys. He started yelling, our guys started yelling back and it looked like we were in for a nasty crash as we were now only 500m from the finish. I took stock of this and said to myself, I'm not going to make the podium and a crash looks imminent, in point of fact, the cocky Cat 3 guy turned around again just as he hit a bump and almost went down - that was it for me, I backed off the speed and allowed myself to drift to the back of our group. I traded a top 10 or 15th placing for a 22nd place but in any case, it wouldn't be worth the crash if it occurred. Turns out it didn't so I dropped back for nothing. I did throw in the fastest sprint I still had left and made it pass a few guys. I was happy with the place as I felt I worked real hard in this race; staying at the front 90% of the time. Better yet, I had fun and that's pretty much what road racing is all about for me - and I stayed on the bike and off the ground. Check out the results at Velo Promo.

Final data: 46.73 miles in 2hr 06'47" for an average speed of 22.1 mph. Click on the map below for a MapMyRide view of the course.

Idaho's Stop-Sign Solution

Haven't been posting too much lately as I've been getting ready for this Saturday's San Ardo Road Race. But I picked up the September 2009 Bicycling issue and on page 22 read with much interest an article by Bob Mionske. Bob is the author of "Bicycling and the Law" and writes how Idaho handles bicycles and stop signs/red lights. It is exactly the way I've been saying and handling stop signs myself.

For the last 26 years cyclists in Idaho can roll through stop signs - legally. When a cyclist approaches an intersection with a stop sign, the cyclist must slow to a "reasonable speed," but doesn't have to come to a complete stop if there is no opposing traffic. My rides are almost all in rural areas and it seems pretty asinine to come to a complete stop at stop sign controlled intersections when you are clearly not a hazard to other traffic. I've always argued that coming to a complete stop is even dangerous as you now may have to pull out of your cleats or risk being unstable as you try to balance at the intersection. As a pilot of small planes, I like the saying, "out of altitude and air speed" and it applies to bicycles too; in other words, your bike is now too slow to maneuver well and more likely to get into trouble if evasive action is needed. I've even slipped on the street when my cleats make it seem that I've stepped on an ice rink rather than the road service.

As far as red lights are concerned, Idaho allows you to come to a complete stop but then proceed if safe; in other words you can treat the light as if it was a stop sign. A couple of years ago in Santa Cruz, California, I was out stretching my legs with a short ride, as I had the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey to race the next day. I was on the outskirts of town coming up on a left turn controlled by a light. The light was red so I actually stopped but since I didn't see a car within a quarter of a mile of the intersection, I started up again and pedaled through the red light. Immediately I heard a siren go off in the distance, with a loud acceleration of a car's engine - it was a California Highway Patrolman racing up to pull me over with red light and siren. The patrolman kept me on the side of the road for over a half hour before writing me a ticket for not stopping and waiting for the red light to turn green. I never did receive the ticket but that's another story, and another case of me breaking the law...

Calistoga to Pt. Reyes Station

Esmeralda climbing the 300+ steps

What an incredible ride! I had vistas, hills, valleys, rivers, oceans, etc. Once again I was looking for a one-way trip that would provide me with the above, and give my wife and daughter something cool to see when they picked me up - the ride from Calistoga to Pt. Reyes Station is perfect. Not only do you get all the above but you also get a great bakery at the Station as well as the chance to tour Pt. Reyes National Seashore and the 1870 lighthouse situated way out on the point.

The Lighthouse

The ride is a good 58 miles (93 km) long and has challenging climbs and high speed descents. You get to ride through the towns of Santa Rosa and Petaluma , which may not be the high point of your ride, depends on how you like the towns. Hitting all the stop lights in Santa Rosa was kind of a pain but I did like riding through the old town. I had never been to Petaluma before so I did enjoy the trip through town and the right turn onto D street to start the long ride to the South West and eventually the town of Pt. Reyes Station. As usual, you can get all the information, including route directions and elevations from MapMyRide and the download from my Garmin.

Once in Pt. Reyes Station I found a public restroom right next to a small playground that was perfect for changing out of my bike clothes and putting the bike on my wife's car. Then a short walk to a bakery you can't miss - just look for the line coming out the door. The bakery is called Bovine Bakery and I've included a link from a fellow blogger who did a great posting on this wonderful place.

A trip to Pt. Reyes wouldn't be complete without a side trip to the lighthouse constructed in 1870. This is a must see for all lighthouse buffs out there. Here's a link for information on this neat place.

Jade with the 300 steps

The ride took me 3 hours and 18 minutes. I ended up crashing the Marin Century ride as literally hundreds of roadies were on the same road as myself. There also seemed to be some kind of ride coming out of Pt. Reyes Station too. Another huge group of roadies with different kind of numbers on their backs and yet another group with green wrist bands on. I enjoyed all the company on the ride down and was not bothered by any of the traffic that was relatively light. Check out my ride below and enjoy:


Oh, if you have a better way to get there or other variations of this ride, please comment below. I really like to get a locals take on routes. See my trip to Bodega Bay; Mat, of Bodega Bay Cycles commented on a much better route to get me to Bodega Bay from Calistoga.

Photo by Jade