Caleb O’Hare - Bishop O’Dowd, Varsity
On Friday, made it to the race track in time to catch Dan and Max on their 2nd preride lap. I almost rode with the legend “Noah Hayes” but had to get a temporary race plate to ride the course. Silly! On the first pre ride lap, I found that the course was the same as it was every year, fun and fast. I liked the descent, and even the climb. On the second lap, I did some small 1 minute efforts led by Max. I figured if he was doing them, then I could too. My legs felt nice and I think these small efforts helped. I had a great meal of penne pasta, garlic fries, and pizza which I shared with the lads. I came into the night nice and full. Dan, Max, Ethan and I had a great night watching shark/megaladon videos on youtube followed by watching Batman on the TV. I probably drifted off around 11:15, and got up various times in the night to drink, go peepee, or just from Dan’s snoring.
On race day, I tried my best to grab as much food as I could before heading to sing the national anthem, an Oakcomp custom. I found out that my kooky teammates ate all the oatmeal, so I made a bagel and grabbed some nutrition bars to compromise (the lack of oatmeal may have been a blessing in disguise, because I felt pretty mint at this race). I came back down and drank some orange juice, ate more bananas, and had a PB&J bagel. We heckled for a bit, but an angry SF mom ratted us out to the feds and unfortunately we were asked to leave our little spot, even though we were extremely polite to all passerby and were making every racer smile. Irony was, the man who asked us not the block the trail stopped in the middle of the trail while telling us this, and a racer blew right into him! Oh well. I popped on the trainers and got in a somewhat mellow, but good warmup, with some sprints at the end. I grabbed handfuls and handfuls of gu’s and gels and ate some on the trainer, as well as another banana. I also drank about a bottle of watermelon GU water while on the trainer. I headed to the start with 4 gu gel’s in my pocket and consumed one right before the start. I lined up in the 3rd row, next to one of my heroes Paul Serra. I let out a good chuckle when Coco asked Max “What are you stoked about?” (or something like that) and he responded with “Senders Racing!” My start was mediocre, I was right by Emmet up the hill. Right after the grassy part, where it pops back on to the downhill fireroad, disaster struck. My chain popped off! I coasted to the top of a small uphill and popped of to fix it, watching my field go by. I heard chants from Emmet and Dan saying things like, “Nooooo Caleb!” and was sad. But, the odd thing was, I was really not stressing too much about it. I hopped back on, cruising in last place, and caught the back of the pack by the brutal climb before the descent. The more I think about it, the more I think the chain popping off actually helped me, because I was motivated to get back to the front and only thought about moving up rather than holding my position. However, I definitely didn’t want it to fall off again, so I forced myself to take it somewhat easy on the descents, which was really a bummer because I knew I could make up little bits of time there. Oh well! By the bottom of the climb, I had somehow caught the lead group, and was feeling great. It was a miracle. In fact, the pace up the climb almost felt slow, so I said, “Noah Hayes! Isn’t this a varsity race?” and after that the group sped up a little. (Oopsie, probably shouldn’t have said that teehee!). By hurl hill, I fell a touch behind because I actually had to pass more people on the climb. I rode into the 2nd lap by myself with the intent of catching up to the group. I didn’t really feel it, but I was actually going pretty fast, and my lap time for the 2nd lap was only a couple seconds slower than “Noah Hayes”’s absolute monster of a final lap. It was less than 17 minutes. On this lap, I had my hero Emmet Tuttle in from of me on the descent and Senders Racing Team Manager Birdo behind me. Stoke levels could not have been higher. It was an absolute blast going down the descent, but shortly after, poor Emmet launched himself in the rhubarb on a blind corner and I reacted just quickly enough to avoid it. I knew Emmet was definitely faster than me, and I figured he would catch back up, but I think he lost all motivation because he never did :(. I rode solo for the rest of that lap and by the climb, caught up to 4th place finisher, Matt Garrison. I even believed I could potentially drop him because I was definitely moving faster than he was by the time I caught him. I crossed the line for the 3rd lap in front of him, tucking on the downhill fireroad rather than pedaling. I also grabbed a new bottle on this lap, which also had watermelon Gu in it. I said my hello’s to Matt Garrison on the climb before the descent, as I do with all my fellow racers. He told me, “Being sick sucks!” but then made a really smart attack on the steep climb before the descent, passing three JV riders, forcing me to grab handfuls of brake on the downhill and lose a lot of time. I was a little bummed, but didn’t really mind. On this lap, I caught National Champ "Benjamin Villafane” and asked how he was feeling. he said “Feelin great.” I wasn’t trying to play mind games with him or anything, I just wanted to know how he was feeling. On the climb, I passed and dropped him. Coming in to the 4th lap, I’m pretty sure I was by myself, focusing on not letting my chain drop on the downhill. I don’t really remember too much from this lap, but it was my slowest lap, taking about 18 minutes (not including longer first lap). I just made passes, drank water, and focused on going hard. I was suffering up hurl hill, but Rock Lobster coach Ben Dodge told me, “You’re a beast! You’re in 6th!” and I was like Oh snap! I kept up my speed and, far off in the distance, saw Matthew Saldana, the rider who crushed the JV field I was in last year. I focused on staying smooth and dropping the watts on the fire road uphill and grabbed a normal water bottle at the feed zone. Once again, I got aero on the downhill. Matt Saldana, who was in 5th place, was nearing. I didn’t catch him on the downhill, but by the time we got to the uphill, he was in my sights. I went hard, but not too hard up the uphill and, to my shock, caught him. I stayed behind him all the way up the rest of the climb, and noticed he was visibly nervous. He was looking back on me every 5 seconds, and anytime he saw riders ahead, he would shout, “Varsity riders back!” which meant unfortunately he knew I was varsity. I knew it was going to be a great battle for who would get the last spot on the podium. I was right on his tail up hurl hill, where everyone was shouting (to both of us) “Yeah! You can pass him!” But I knew I should draft for as long as possible. At the feed zone, the coaches were extremely stoked, and shouted at me to pass him. It was exhilarating and motivating, but unfortunately, it was not good advice. I used the exhilaration to make a big display of passing him before the final fire road downhill, huge mistake. I did a mixture of getting aero and pedaling, and came into the final couple of yards in front of him, but, since he was drafting me on the downhill, he used that saved energy to sprint right past me and finish on 5th, leaving me in 6th, less than a second behind. I was bummed but I knew I had made a big mistake and paid the price. I realize I should’ve a) continued to draft him on the final downhill or b) passed him right when I caught him on the climb, because if I blew by him he probably wouldn’t try to stay. Oh well, live and learn!I was still super stoked to go from very last place to baaaasically 5th place in a super competitive, varsity level race. I think the climby course, proper nutrition, and great week of riding/“training” the week beforehand led me to be well-prepared for this race. I only had about 2.5 bottle and 2 gu’s, and my stomach hurt a little bit, but that’s just what happens when racing - so I’d say I ate well. Just missing the podium spot leaves me hungry to get a podium finish! Overall, the race was super fun and my legs felt stellar. I was happy to see Noah and Max finish on the podium, and was stoked when people congratulated me about my comeback :) Probably my most fun NICA race yet! Thanks for reading this extremely long report, I hope it was worth your time! Senders Racing!
With love, Caleb O'Hare, varsity boys, Bishop O'Dowd High School 6 / 26
