Gopher Wheelmen Cycling Club

Womens OPEN
27 mi
Sara 6/30+
Sherry 7/30+

Sherry & I lined up with hoards (relatively speaking) of women including members from pretty much ALL local teams (Bellas, Peace Coffee, Birchwood, Flanders, Alan, SPBRC, Nature Valley) + a few others. Goal of the day: no bonehead moves.

Racing started right away with attacks from the start, but nothing really dangerous. Fun to actually have a pack of riders, other people available to chase down riders. We were having a real race. Strong SSE wind slowed the group as we turned south, but noticed that we had shed riders over the first few miles.. Pack down to ~ 15 or so riders. Helped with some pacemaking up the big 3 rollers on the backside to keep things under control. Drifted back to seek some shelter (Sherry was toward the front), when suddenly a 20 m gap opened. I was riding next to a B-wood rider who was trying to close the gap, towing 2 other B-wood & one Nature valley). Notable absence of Nature valley up in the front group, and only 1 B-wood rider up front, led me to the decision that Sherry was there so we were represented if the break went up the road. I did not try to close the gap because I suspected I would bring 3 B-wood ride! rs & nature valley back to the front of the race.

The gap was never closed & the break was up the road. Counterattacked a B-wood attack through the start/finish, attempting a solo bridge as we turned back east. Eventually reigned back in by 2 Nature Valley riders (one had a dropped chain & had rejoined the race) + 1 B-wood. Rotated a bit with these folks after spotting what appeared to be Sherry & another rider off the back of the original breakaway. Since Gophers were no longer at the front of the race, I worked with a Nature Valley rider to get back to the front of the race. When reaching two more riders who had come off the front of the race, I attacked to check their status (could we just ride by?), but was covered immediately. Dropped to the back of this now 4-some waiting for the sprint. When the sprint started, digging any deeper was not in the cards, so I rolled in 4th of this bunch for 6th overall. I actually thought we were sprinting for 5th place! , but had I known we were sprinting for 3rd, I might have played some cards differently. Satisfying day, however, with no bone-head moves. Just need to work on that math thing now…counting riders up the road.

Results are quite funny:

http://www.cvccbike.com/node/76

I heard we had another top 10 from the guys…good gopher day.

Thanks for reading.

Sara

(report by Dan Schueller

The Masters 45+ 3-lap race of 35 willing participants went something
like this:

During the first lap I rode near the front watching for Gordy Paulson
to attempt a breakaway (he’s a national champion time trialer who
doesn’t have much of a sprint so I knew he would go at some point).
At the top of the last hill on the first lap he took off super hard and
3 of us were able to go with him. After a mile we had a sizeable lead
when Gordy pulled off the front and suggested a rotation. I was near my
red line just hanging on so when my turn at the front came I blew. For
the next 3 rotations I stayed at the back and didn’t pull through
because I was at my pain limit just drafting at such an insane pace.
Finally I had to ease up and I went back to the pack (this was the first
time I can remember being in a break and unable to hold on).

A mile later the same thing happened to Dave Herbert from Silver
Cycling and the break was now two. The rest of the race I just rode
near the front of the group waiting to win the sprint for 3rd. At the
start of the last hill my chain came off and I had to get off my bike to
put it back on. Then I rode all out up the hill and surprisingly caught
the group (which was down to about 10) before the top. In the last mile
I was in perfect position for the sprint as me, Gordy Devers and Tom
Russell were at the front taking up the whole lane. I waited until
quite late to start the sprint because I thought the group behind
couldn’t get by because of the yellow line rule (I didn’t know that
we could cross it during the finish sprint). Then two Silver Cycling
guys went by in the other lane and I started sprinting but couldn’t
make up for their jump even though I hit 40.0 mph. So I finished 3rd in
the sprint (about 4 inches behind 2nd), 5th overall. Gordy Devers
finished strong in 8th.

The Cat 4/5 Gophers did even better with a 2nd (David Schueller) and
7th (Rich Bergstrom). A good day had by (almost) all.

(report by Jeff Ingham)

The Cat 3/4 race went something like this.

Lap 1: Ride the whole lap as hard and as fast as you can, see the field go from 50 riders to 12 in the blink of an eye, but what the heck we made the selection.

Lap 2: Lap 1 wasn’t hard enough so go even harder, notice you’re already running low on fluids with two more laps to go. See 4 insanely strong riders ride off the front of an already fast moving group.

Lap 3: Hope that we can have an easy lap…..nope, every roller is an attack to be covered. Crack on the last roller, race over.

Lap 4: Ride until the first turn by myself and then DNF, finishing all by myself wasn’t worth it in that wind.

Hardest race I’ve ever done.

Incidentally 4 laps on that course included over 4200ft of climbing. That was one tough race.

(Lee Penn’s report)

I tried something new this past weekend…. Had a BLAST!!!!

Race: Tax Man Cometh Alleycat Bike Race
Host: BEAST (Bike Enthusiasts at St. Thomas)
Date: Friday, April 13, 2007
Result: 44th out of around 60 entrants – not bad for a commuter bike with
occupied trailer; winner of smelly markers for collaborative art by my son
and me; and two pairs (jacks and fives), which were not good enough to beat
three aces, unfortunately.

Ways to win: This race had three ways of “winning”, two of which did not
require sheer speed. So it wasn’t all about competition. Mainly, the race
was super fun!

Friday the thirteenth – what a great day for a race! I rode home from work
and picked up my commuter bike, trailer, and son. He and I then rode to St.
Thomas and registered for the race. This was my first ever alley cat race.
The average bike was a fixie or single gear, and I was the only person who
arrived with a child in a trailer. That was cool with me. I wasn’t in it
to win by way of speediness! On the way, I shed my outer layer because it
was so delightfully warm and sunny! There was a wide range of racers,
ranging from folks with their fixies to me with my trailer. I was NOT the
only one in spandex, although we numbered few!

Alley cat races are quite different than road races or criteriums (think
spandex, lots and lots of colorful spandex). These races typically have
around a dozen or so stops, and tasks must be completed or information must
be collected at each stop.

At 5:45p, the manifest was distributed. There were thirteen stops. We had
fifteen minutes to plan our route. At each stop, tasks had to be completed
(e.g., obtain stamp and poker card or create a piece of art) or information
collected (e.g., identify the flags at Shriner’s hospital). I was pretty

familiar with the locations of most stops and decided to plan the first five
and see where we were at that point. I didn’t know how my son would like
it, you see. I definitely wanted to make the required art stops and hit
Trotter’s café…

6:00p – we’re off! I was surprised that the race started on time –
delighted, actually. My son was anxious to get started. We had the trailer
open, and Tre (my five year old son) had his green flag a-wavin’. First, we
went to the Dunn Brothers at Lake St. and W. River Road (yes, this is in
Minneapolis – an odd choice of stop for a St. Paul race) to obtain the exact
address, which cannot be obtained from the building’s exterior nor from the
employees. Then, we were off to the Shriners, where the lack of wind made
it difficult to identify the Mexican flag (I really think it was indeed the
Mexican flag). After Shriners, we went to Trotters, where we purchased an
oatmeal raisen/craisen cookie (after a pretty long wait in line, sadly), and
a very yummy cookie it was! Then, we picked up our poker card and stamp and
continued on. Then, we started climbing Marshall in order to find out what
a sign on a fence just south of the intersection of Marshall and Albert
said…. Don’t drive on the XXXX (grass). Yes, going east on Marshall
qualifies as a climb when one is pulling an occupied trailer!

After this, the order of all the stops starts to get a little fuzzy.
Honestly, I might not quite have the order of the first few stops quite
right above.At one of the cafés, I did trade / share a little information
with a few other bikers… I also consulted with someone as to where exactly
a stop on St. Kate’s campus was. In the end, we accomplished 11 of the 13
stops although we obtained information for all 13 stops. Overall, I had a
super good time – I rode hard and got sweaty. Tre told me he loved the race
and says he wants to do it again.

Sadly, I could not attend the post-race party as the five-year old has a
bedtime that must be observed – or we pay the price the next day!

Next alley cat race for us?
Aprilween Race Medley, Short Race Series
Saturday, April 28th 2007, 3-7 PM
Bracket Park
Post Race Bonfire after dark.

Keller is working on it, email him with stuff…

(report by Matthew Sterling)

Did my first race of the year tonight and it was awesome!  Anyone that
hasn’t come out to Opus should really check it out.  Here is a link to the
flier: http://www.mcf.net/misc/2007OPUS.pdf

This was my first Cat. 4 race and it was fast.  My original plan was to try
taking a flier off the front early in the race with the thought that if just
one or two others joined me we might stay out there to the finish.  With the
stiff wind tonight I didn’t know if that plan was going to work and the
first couple laps were fast enough that it seemed unlikely that any breaks
would be able to stay away for long.  Shortly after the first sprint a
Bicycle Chain rider made the move that I was thinking about but when I was
too far back to try joining him.  Nobody else went with him either.  He
might have gotten as much as 10 seconds on the pack but his attack never got
out of sight.  After a lap of him suffering up there I decided to end his
misery and led a chase that pulled him in just in time for the second
sprint.  At this point I was starting to question why I had even come out to
race at all, my plan for a breakaway hadn’t gone anywhere, and I hadn’t been
a contender for either of the sprints.  It was looking like I was just going
to be pack fodder for the last sprint too.  As soon as we got the bell for
the final lap the pace revved up and it was a battle for position near the
front all the way down the back end of the course.  As we came around toward
the climb I was surprised to find myself pretty well positioned near the
front but there were a lot of strong riders up there and we were
surprisingly bunched up for how fast we were coming up around the bottom of
the hill.  As we headed up the climb I found myself boxed in and desperately
started looking for any openings.  At about 100 meters to go 2 Loon State
riders and another guy surged ahead and as others tried to follow enough
gaps opened up that I was able to shoot out of the group and found myself
hot on the wheels of the 3 battling it out for the finish.  Although I
failed to catch them I easily took 4th and was thrilled to finish so well in
a race that just a couple laps earlier was looking to be a complete waste
for me.

Thanks for reading, hope to see some of you out at Opus.  I was the sole
representative for the Gophers tonight.  Good luck to everyone racing Durand
this weekend, wish I could join you.

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It’s on, and coming up soon! Click Here for the 2007 Ken Woods Memorial Road Race Flier

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The weeknight rides have begun for 2007. Pack the trainer away, it’s time to ride outside!