Berkeley Road Race report

This report is a little late, but here goes. Berkeley Hills Road Race is always one of the biggest road races throughout the year. I rode it last year for the first time, which was coincidently my first road race ever. Pulled off of 6th place, so I was definitely gunning for a good result as the climbs suit me and having coming off of Gila with some great form, I felt it was my day.

Race started off pretty straightforward on the first 2 laps. Several breaks went but nothing materialized. I stayed near the front waiting and watching for the decisive move of the day. At the start of lap 3, I tried bridging up to a break as some strong riders went. It was brought back so i sat back in the pack and recovered. On the last lap, I went up the climb through the feed zone and was feeling really good...like no chain good. Told teammate Dan that I was going to going to attack on this lap and go for it. I originally had planned to attack at the top of the first of the 3 bears, which is a nice long climb with a minor descent before it goes up again. As we rolled through the curvy road section i saw a move go and it looked promising. It was earlier than I was planning on going but I had to go with it. I attacked from the left side and rode up to the break. Another group had tried to bridge but I rolled by them like they were standing still. My move was pretty decisive and there was no one that could latch which was good. I actually rode about 2 bike lengths past the lead break. We grouped up, me, a Essex County Velo rider, and Spine rider. It took us awhile to get the paceline working but we were able to move much quicker through the winding roads than the peloton. The winds were tricky which caused some problems in our paceline. On the first bear climb, we dropped the spine rider. Better off b/c he wasn't working very hard. I set a pretty hard tempo up the climb just above LT. We crested with the peloton not in site at the bottom which was a good sign. About 2.5-3 miles to go at that point. The ECV rider and I worked well till the bottom of the final climb to the finish. We were side by side, and i ended up getting out of the saddle a little bit which caused me to fall back a little bit. It was enough to get some separation. We ended up finishing 1-2(or so I thought). I was so stoked, not having been in such a move in so long. I knew when we crested the final climb before the climb to the finish we had it. After finishing I found out that a group of 3 had gotten away previously. I never saw it go and neither did my counterpart or a lot of others. I guess thats how it goes in bicycle racing. Still super stoked with my finish. Happy to see all the hard work paying off.

I walked away with some cool shwag too: tshirt, $10, 2 bottles of Olive Oil, 1/2lb of Peets Coffee, Gu shots, Gu drink mix and some luna bars. Not bad.

I am taking off of racing this weekend, just gearing up for the next chapter as my coach says. Wed, the 23rd, I leave for Belgium. Can't wait. Stay tuned as this exciting chapter unfolds in my life.

chow chow,
Matthew