Zachary Hilton
Placing: 22
Field: 44
Field: 44
Berkeley, CA
Teammates: Mike Scaglione, Tom Stanis, Jeff Rogers, Giles Douglas, Alan Weatherall
Weather: 56 degrees avg. Sunny, just needed arm warmers, windy on lap 2 & 3
Start Time: 7:58am
Total Time: 2:51:00
Power: 161 W avg, 720 W max, 206 W NP
Average Speed: 18.78 MPH, Top Speed 41.8 MPH
Average HR: 165 Max HR: 192
Elevation Ascent: 4,780 ft
Training Peaks Data
Berkeley Hills road race is one of my favorite races! I raced this course in 2012 for the first time. I do training rides on it, and yes it's usually always on Mother's Day. I took 2013 off to be at home with my wife and 2 year old daughter. This year they moved the day to Saturday! We got 6 SJBC guys together for the 35+4's. It's great to see our team come together, pre-plan, and race! SJBC Race Team is coming together and building for the future. My goals for this race were to continue to build on my fitness for the upcoming summer races. I wanted to stay with the group on these power climbs, and help my teammates. I got dropped in 2012 on papa bear climb, and chased down the group with a few other riders. The following time up Mama Bear I was done. Berkeley Hills has 4,780 ft of climbing for the 2.7 laps in the 35+4's. That's spread out over the course. Each of bears are were you get some elevation and need to sustain 3-4 minute max efforts to stay with the group. There are other short climbs throughout the course. Castro Ranch Rd has a bump and so does Bear Creek Rd as you come up to San Pablo Dam Rd.
I just bought a new Chevy Tahoe and I still haven't figured out how to pack all the items in my truck for a race. My bikes fit in perfect, but it's the small items that I don't know where to put! I wanted to arrive early so that I could get a good warm-up on the trainer. I was loosing time, and stressing out! I made it up to Berkeley Hills with only 30 minutes to warm up. I lucked out because the first few miles of our race were super tame. Normally it's fast pace from the start. I used the race tape that Scott Riddle got us and loved it. Saved me time and the race number stayed on flat entire time. No problem taking it off after, and didn't damage kit. I put in a few pins :)
Ok off to the races. I carried one bottle and relied on Paul Morel in the feed zone. Lined up in the front and we're off to a neutral start from the boat docks up to San Pablo Dam Rd. I chatted it up for a while with Luigi a former Peru National Team racer back in the 90's. He started up his own race team this year, and lives in the area. He's a tough competitor, and is working his way through the categories. At least he's honest about it, and isn't sandbagging like some others right now. The pace was talking speed until we made the downhill approach to Castro Ranch Rd. I was staying up front in the top 10 entire time. No attacks just some surges of the field as we hit the first little bump in the road on Castro Ranch Rd. A really fast decent down Castro as we turned right on Alhambra Rd. I love this downhill. Super smooth road, and the first 2 laps no crosswinds. As we approached Mama Bear you could feel the anticipation of the field, and hear the orchestra of gears switching to their small chain rings. Mama Bear was fierce going up as planned. A Cushman rider who has gone down too many times this season stood up on his bike to dig deeper to my front right and his back wheel spun and he fell to his right...he landed right in front of my teammate Tom Stanis and took his down too. That also created a separation in the group. As we descended to Baby Bear the field was stretched out. I knew from past experience that this was normal and no worries. You can get aero and keep soft pedaling in the big ring and you approach the next climb. If you need to you can power climb fast over the next climb to catch back on. As we approached the Papa Bear climb we had around 20 riders maybe. By the time we regrouped after the climb we were in for another bombing descent down Bear Creek Rd and out to San Pablo Dam Rd. At the bottom of the descent everyone looked around to see who was left. Mike, Jeff, and myself. Plus maybe 3 Pen Velo guys. The rest were solo riders and strong. Wells Fargo's Tim Vickroy , Luigi from Do It Green Carpet Clean, Winston Asprec Cushman, Chappy Wood, CJ Wolf, and Ben Cannon from VSRT. Some more but I can't remember them all. On San Pablo Dam Rd there were a few attacks off the front but no one got away. The 2nd attack on San Pablo Dam was I believe initiated by a Pen Velo guy and Luigi took off with him. I looked over at Mike Scaglione and told him he should go with it. He jumped on someones wheel and I followed right behind him for a free ride up to the break. That wasn't a bad idea to attack there. Everyone was trying to recover from the Bears and the pace was slow in the group. As soon as we hit the downhill to Castro Ranch everyone regrouped. Somewhere after the turn onto Castro Ranch Rd Ben Cannon followed by Luigi just took off the front. The group wasn't responding and we were approaching the little hill. Those were two really strong guys, Mike S. wasn't in it, and Pen Velo wasn't doing anything to chase it down. Jeff and myself were upfront and my gut reaction was to get those guys back. Jeff and I did a great job chasing them down for over a minute. That took a toll on my legs for sure. But that was my job in this race, and happy to do it! This next part was awesome. We were cruising on Alhambra Rd when teammate Jeff Rogers just comes to the front and then.......GOES OFF THE FRONT! This is only minutes after we just chased down an attack. I was sitting 4th wheel soft pedaling and just watching him disappear. No one bothered to react to this move. Jeff for over a minute off the group. Jeff will talk about what happened next. Huge kudos to Jeff for doing that bro! Pen Velo should have come up and counter attacked right after we pulled Luigi back but they just sat it the entire race. I'm glad they stayed out of the top 10, and we put Mike S up for a chance at the finish! Great job to Mike for getting 6th place and racing down with us! I started to have muscle cramps on the right quad just over the left side of my knee as we approached Mama Bear....most likely due to that previous chase. (I still have a little soreness there today also.) Damn!!! I was feeling really good in this race. I wanted to climb and stay with the group again! I fell off the back, and backed off for the Bears climbs. I grabbed a Hammer Nutrition bottle from Paul. Thank you so much Paul for being there! Love the Hammer Banner on the roof!!!! I drank half the bottle before the descent after Papa and also took a Hammer Gel Peanut Butter of course. I passed up some Elite Cat 4's and my legs were finally coming back up to speed! I got into a good aero TT form and pushed it all the way to the Bears again by myself. No one ever passed me by, and I kept telling myself to leave it all on the course.
Bummed I couldn't be there to help out Mike get a higher placing. Jeff-again great job on putting yourself out there. I know it didn't stick, but you would have regretted it if you didn't try. Awesome job to complete this race goes to Alan, and Giles. This is a tough course!
Overall I am right where I should be this time of year. Stoked to be on SJBC Race Team, and surrounded by such courageous racers. Tom kudos to you bro for finishing this race despite everything you endured prior to the race and then during.
My next race is Mt Hamilton RR on May 25. My first mountain race of the season, and a test to see where I am at in training.
Berkeley Hills road race is one of my favorite races! I raced this course in 2012 for the first time. I do training rides on it, and yes it's usually always on Mother's Day. I took 2013 off to be at home with my wife and 2 year old daughter. This year they moved the day to Saturday! We got 6 SJBC guys together for the 35+4's. It's great to see our team come together, pre-plan, and race! SJBC Race Team is coming together and building for the future. My goals for this race were to continue to build on my fitness for the upcoming summer races. I wanted to stay with the group on these power climbs, and help my teammates. I got dropped in 2012 on papa bear climb, and chased down the group with a few other riders. The following time up Mama Bear I was done. Berkeley Hills has 4,780 ft of climbing for the 2.7 laps in the 35+4's. That's spread out over the course. Each of bears are were you get some elevation and need to sustain 3-4 minute max efforts to stay with the group. There are other short climbs throughout the course. Castro Ranch Rd has a bump and so does Bear Creek Rd as you come up to San Pablo Dam Rd.
I just bought a new Chevy Tahoe and I still haven't figured out how to pack all the items in my truck for a race. My bikes fit in perfect, but it's the small items that I don't know where to put! I wanted to arrive early so that I could get a good warm-up on the trainer. I was loosing time, and stressing out! I made it up to Berkeley Hills with only 30 minutes to warm up. I lucked out because the first few miles of our race were super tame. Normally it's fast pace from the start. I used the race tape that Scott Riddle got us and loved it. Saved me time and the race number stayed on flat entire time. No problem taking it off after, and didn't damage kit. I put in a few pins :)
Ok off to the races. I carried one bottle and relied on Paul Morel in the feed zone. Lined up in the front and we're off to a neutral start from the boat docks up to San Pablo Dam Rd. I chatted it up for a while with Luigi a former Peru National Team racer back in the 90's. He started up his own race team this year, and lives in the area. He's a tough competitor, and is working his way through the categories. At least he's honest about it, and isn't sandbagging like some others right now. The pace was talking speed until we made the downhill approach to Castro Ranch Rd. I was staying up front in the top 10 entire time. No attacks just some surges of the field as we hit the first little bump in the road on Castro Ranch Rd. A really fast decent down Castro as we turned right on Alhambra Rd. I love this downhill. Super smooth road, and the first 2 laps no crosswinds. As we approached Mama Bear you could feel the anticipation of the field, and hear the orchestra of gears switching to their small chain rings. Mama Bear was fierce going up as planned. A Cushman rider who has gone down too many times this season stood up on his bike to dig deeper to my front right and his back wheel spun and he fell to his right...he landed right in front of my teammate Tom Stanis and took his down too. That also created a separation in the group. As we descended to Baby Bear the field was stretched out. I knew from past experience that this was normal and no worries. You can get aero and keep soft pedaling in the big ring and you approach the next climb. If you need to you can power climb fast over the next climb to catch back on. As we approached the Papa Bear climb we had around 20 riders maybe. By the time we regrouped after the climb we were in for another bombing descent down Bear Creek Rd and out to San Pablo Dam Rd. At the bottom of the descent everyone looked around to see who was left. Mike, Jeff, and myself. Plus maybe 3 Pen Velo guys. The rest were solo riders and strong. Wells Fargo's Tim Vickroy , Luigi from Do It Green Carpet Clean, Winston Asprec Cushman, Chappy Wood, CJ Wolf, and Ben Cannon from VSRT. Some more but I can't remember them all. On San Pablo Dam Rd there were a few attacks off the front but no one got away. The 2nd attack on San Pablo Dam was I believe initiated by a Pen Velo guy and Luigi took off with him. I looked over at Mike Scaglione and told him he should go with it. He jumped on someones wheel and I followed right behind him for a free ride up to the break. That wasn't a bad idea to attack there. Everyone was trying to recover from the Bears and the pace was slow in the group. As soon as we hit the downhill to Castro Ranch everyone regrouped. Somewhere after the turn onto Castro Ranch Rd Ben Cannon followed by Luigi just took off the front. The group wasn't responding and we were approaching the little hill. Those were two really strong guys, Mike S. wasn't in it, and Pen Velo wasn't doing anything to chase it down. Jeff and myself were upfront and my gut reaction was to get those guys back. Jeff and I did a great job chasing them down for over a minute. That took a toll on my legs for sure. But that was my job in this race, and happy to do it! This next part was awesome. We were cruising on Alhambra Rd when teammate Jeff Rogers just comes to the front and then.......GOES OFF THE FRONT! This is only minutes after we just chased down an attack. I was sitting 4th wheel soft pedaling and just watching him disappear. No one bothered to react to this move. Jeff for over a minute off the group. Jeff will talk about what happened next. Huge kudos to Jeff for doing that bro! Pen Velo should have come up and counter attacked right after we pulled Luigi back but they just sat it the entire race. I'm glad they stayed out of the top 10, and we put Mike S up for a chance at the finish! Great job to Mike for getting 6th place and racing down with us! I started to have muscle cramps on the right quad just over the left side of my knee as we approached Mama Bear....most likely due to that previous chase. (I still have a little soreness there today also.) Damn!!! I was feeling really good in this race. I wanted to climb and stay with the group again! I fell off the back, and backed off for the Bears climbs. I grabbed a Hammer Nutrition bottle from Paul. Thank you so much Paul for being there! Love the Hammer Banner on the roof!!!! I drank half the bottle before the descent after Papa and also took a Hammer Gel Peanut Butter of course. I passed up some Elite Cat 4's and my legs were finally coming back up to speed! I got into a good aero TT form and pushed it all the way to the Bears again by myself. No one ever passed me by, and I kept telling myself to leave it all on the course.
Bummed I couldn't be there to help out Mike get a higher placing. Jeff-again great job on putting yourself out there. I know it didn't stick, but you would have regretted it if you didn't try. Awesome job to complete this race goes to Alan, and Giles. This is a tough course!
Overall I am right where I should be this time of year. Stoked to be on SJBC Race Team, and surrounded by such courageous racers. Tom kudos to you bro for finishing this race despite everything you endured prior to the race and then during.
My next race is Mt Hamilton RR on May 25. My first mountain race of the season, and a test to see where I am at in training.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks to Voler!
