Zachary Hilton
Placing: 32
Livermore, CA
Teammates: Tom Stanis, Jeff Rogers, George Bonanto, Giles Douglas, Manny Mananbanag, Peter Cathcart
Weather: 63 degrees avg. Scattered Clouds Entire Race, windy as usual!
Start Time: 11:55am
Total Time: 2:29:00
Power: 176 W avg, 785 W max, 210 W NP
Average Speed: 19.1 MPH, Top Speed 42.7 MPH
Average HR: 168 Max HR: 190
Elevation Ascent: 4124 ft
Wente RR is always a tough race, especially in the past 2 years when it was 90 degrees on the course. This year the weather was cold, and yes still windy. The masters cat 4 team got together for this race. We were in the 35+4's. This was the greatest number of teammates I've had in a race so far. We pre-planned and everyone had a role. Paul was staffing the feed zone for the day and supplying the team with water and plenty of ice cold Hammer Nutrition! My personal goal was to help the team as much as I could while still building up my fitness for the upcoming climbing races this spring and summer.
Learning from earlier starts this year, I wanted to minimize the time from finishing my warm-up and starting the race. Wente's start line is only about 2 minutes from where I parked and warmed up on the trainer. I got a good 45 minutes warming up. The other well represented team was Team Revolutions. We all lined up front at the start and lead the group up Altamont Pass Rd and Carroll Rd. Paul M. was placed in a good spot for the feed zone. It was always super slow mo going by him. We would be climbing Carroll Rd 4 times. The first time up Carroll Rd I could feel the pressure of the group, and we separated the group a bit by the top of Flynn Rd. This group would still have around 25 in it, and we started with 44. The group was too big to really get away and once we ended up on Cross Rd you could feel the pace really slow down to a crawl. Two minutes later as we turned onto Telsa Rd. the group behind us had caught back on. Team Revolutions was tried initiating an attack on Greenville Rd and Giles did an amazing job bringing it back. Greenville Rd coming down to the start line was really fast (42 mph) Tim Vickroy from Wells Fargo was off the front and pushing it hard on the group. We turned onto Altamont Pass Rd again and Jeff with Tom right behind me. The pace was fast going up Altamont Rd with Tim from Wells Fargo still on the front. The 2nd time up Carroll Rd was tougher on my legs. I was up near the front at the start and dropped back about 5 seconds off the group as we passed the finish line. I was in a bad place at this point. I was alone and falling off the pace. I drafted off the sag car for 1 minute trying to get back attached to the group before the downhill on Flynn Rd but whoever was riving it didn't let me stay attached for too long. :) Then Max Hudson from Pinnacle, a Pen Velo racer, and 2 Cushman racers came along side me. I followed suit and tried to stay protected from the wind gusts that were starting to really pick up now. Max and Pen Velo guy were really getting frustrated with our group. The pace made one of the Cushman guys drop off and I wasn't going to put in any work. We could see the led group ahead of us, but they were at least 3 minutes ahead with still 25 in the group. No way was a group of 4 going to catch them. Plus I was not interested in chasing down 2 of my teammates in the lead group. Pinnacle and the Pen Velo guy took off and myself and Tim Stuart from Cushman stayed together. As we were on Greenville Rd. Cushman made a huge effort to drop me and he did. Damn...1 lap to go and I was going to do it alone :( Then all of the sudden Giles, and George along with a rider from Team Revolutions, Audi, Cushman came flying by! I was so happy to see my teammates. I jumped on the train,a nd we also caught the Cushman racer that dropped me. None of us had to worry about doing any work. Plus the Audi racer was happy to be on the front pretty much the entire last lap. We all did the last lap together. The final time up Carroll Rd we all split up. I wasn't trying to put in a huge effort, I saw my teammates at the feed zone and just wanted for this race to be finished! I had a TT the following day. Tempus Fugit ITT by Red Kite Racing Events.
Super stoked with our team. Tom Stanis #SJBCRaceTeam took 6th place overall!
My next race is Berkeley Hills Road Race May 10.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks to Voler!
