Berkeley Hills Road Race - May 8, 2005
by Doran Mori

...from the 3's. My Cat 2 sticker is in the mail.

William and I headed out in the team issue 2002 BMW assured of a wet race for both us. The only action that ever happened during the race was on the Bears.

First lap a small split happened over the top and I followed. We were back together at the bottom.

Second lap I set tempo on Mama Bear and feigned some pain. Then on Papa Bear I rolled past everyone to pick up some imaginary KOM points. As I go over the rollers before the descent one guy bridges up to me. Up to this point the roads were just wet. Now's it's raining pretty good and the
+45mph rooster tail to the face is a lot of fun. There's definitely
something wet in my shoes and I think it's my feet. Again back together
at the bottom. The group's a little smaller now at least.

Beginning of the third lap 2 guys go away on Damn Road. I think we were going like 18mph at the time. AV put a guy on the front that set tempo for half lap and brought the two back within sight. He received lots of pats on the back for his effort. But we didn't catch the two yet. I set tempo again on both Mama Bear and Papa Bear. Getting more KOM points.

On the fourth lap I pushed hard over the top of Baby Bear and immediately accelerated to +30mph on Damn Rd opening a gap with Scott Frake from AV on my wheel. Scott finished in front me at Wente by being off the front for almost 2 laps. I pulled Scott for a while. But the pack wasn't going to let us go so I sat up. Nobody's pulling that hard and the two off the front are still 20 seconds or so ahead us. On the downhill toward Castro Ranch I gunned us up to +40mph and bring the two back into sight again. Along Alhambra we caught one of the guys and the other attacked. The other guy I was marking was Ron Castia. So as we headed to Mama Bear I rode his wheel pretty much the whole way with Scott Frake two wheels in front of him. I was hoping not to have to set tempo on Mama Bear for the last lap. But just before we got there a single Bollo guy attacked and as we got closer to bottom of the hill we could see what was left of P12 pack up ahead. This looked like bad news with that guy off the front. So I set a hard tempo on Mama Bear. Hard enough that I wasn't going to be able to do Papa Bear with much turbo to spare. I go over the top and it's just me and Scott with the pack way in the distance. Scott's saying he would pull through if he could on the rollers before Papa Bear. I make him pull on a downhill anyway. On the next roller I gap him a little bit but he's able to get back on my wheel before the last downhill before Papa. So I don't push it too hard. The women are finishing and spackled all over Papa making it hard to see where the Bollo guy is. Did I mention it's pouring now?

The race is on now. The 2-3 minute uphill sprint. I'm at threshold climbing Papa Bear. I leave Scott behind. I catch the Bollo guy about halfway up and he looks over and sighs in a "that's too bad I thought I made it" kinda way. I smirk and silently agree. In my haze I thought somebody was still in front of me but I didn't see anybody in front of me that could be that guy. I thought I had second or third at the time. I glance back 100 yards before the finish to see the Bollo guy giving it once last kick. I was clear but I didn't want to chance it and pushed even harder. RyanS and Doug and friends were marshaling/watching the finish and cheering for me as I rolled through the finish.

"What did I get?" "You won." "I did?"

See you crazy 2's out there. Go Il Falco!

dmo

ps. My front tire was hissing air when I got home.