Old Caz Grashopper - 2018 Edition - 5th place

[Philip Mooney]

My favorite race of the year, Old Caz. I’ve been looking forward to this one for an entire year. Jim and Cathy picked me up at 7 and we loaded my bike on the car. I always enjoy talking to Jim about the nitty gritty of the course details and how we think the race will play out. I also like hearing Cathy's take on her race and giving her encouragement cause she's a badass. It makes the hour long drive go by quickly.

This year I rolled my 1x cross bike (40-32 gearing) with Bontrager CX0 38mm tires at 50/55 psi. I started with 2 bottles on my bike, both filled with CR7 from H24, along with 4 servings of food (fig bar, 2x clif shot blocks, 1 untapped maple). I planned on picking up 2 bottles at the top of Old Caz (I grabbed them but later lost one on the descent). I think that’s the perfect setup for the race after it served me well last year.

It's worth noting that I've had some low level congestion for over a month now. A sore throat and low energy each morning. And then I go out and ride my bike and go about my day and feel just fine. And then I feel happy again the next morning. Writing this now after the race, I certainly feel a sore throat and I've lost my voice. I guess today is not the day I get totally healthy. That being said, I didn't feel like my sickness really held me back today. We staged at my friend Mark’s cabin and had a relaxing time getting ready and chatting. As we rolled down to the start, the weather was perfect at a sunny ~50 degrees and I raced in a jersey and arm warmers with my legs uncovered. 

The race started and we went a bit harder than usual at the start up Coleman Valley. In fact, I got the KOM on the segment from the start to the top of Willowcreek, and also the segment from the start all the way out to highway 1. There were probably 20 guys together as we hit the beginning of descent. By the bottom of the fast descent it was down to a group of 6. I felt comfortable with my high volume tires and didn't feel like I had to take any unnecessary risk. That was nice. We kept the pressure on in the terrible pavement and then the flat section at the bottom. We then started smoothly rotating through and working well together on the pavement. I was impressed when Carson caught back on during the bumpy stuff, followed 10 minutes later by Cameron Bronstein and Will Riffelmacher as we approached Duncan Mills. That just have been a lot of work. We worked nicely until Monte Rio. 

About a minute before hitting Duncan Rd, a group of 10+ that had been riding full gas caught us. What a terrible place to catch on! They all immediately got dropped on the steep climb after so much time at full throttle. Duncan Rd was hard as always. I went up it like I usually do, purposefully keeping it under control on the steeps at the bottom and riding up through folks as it flattens out a bit towards the top. After a twisty little descent, we got to the bottom in a group of 7 and rolled towards the climb of Old Caz. Ted King. Cam Bronstein. Levi Leipheimer. Sam Bassetti. Steven Vogel. Carson Benjamin. Me.

We hit Old Caz and on the steep lower slopes Cam went hard and I let the guys ride away from me the first couple minutes. I was very cognizant of my limits and knew I didn't want to blow up at the beginning of a 17+ minute effort. I kept riding steady and rode through Carson, who had hit it hard to try to keep the pace and was paying the price, and then caught up with Vogel with Bassetti dangling just in front of us. I grabbed some bottles at the top and ripped down the descent, and we were right on the guys at the creek crossing. On the short dirt climb and descent after the creek Vogel and I never made contact as the front 2+2 (4 total) rode away. We ended up chasing hard on the flat road section to the bottom of willow creek. Vogel is a total beast on the flats and I was glad to have his company. He is huge and has a big diesel motor. After 20 minutes of chasing, I saw the front group of 4 as they were riding over the bridge of highway 1 and were probably 90 seconds back. 

Vogel and I kept the pressure on all the way to the bottom of the climb. By now I was quite tired, as I rarely get to ride more than 2 hours. We hit Willow Creek and I rode up it as hard as I could. Vogel dropped back on the lower slopes, and I was pleased that I didn’t have to walk the steep section this year! Ryan Rinn, one of the star cross racers of NorCal, was chasing hard from behind but I was narrowly able to hold him off and I finished in 5th place. That’s just about as good as I could hope for! After a clean race with no major hiccups on a beautiful day with fun friends all around, I was a happy camper. Now I am very very very tired.

1) Ted King. 2) Cam Bronstein. 3) Sam Bassetti. 4) Levi Leipheimer. 5) Me. 6) Ryan Rinn 7) Andy Goessling 8) Stephen Vogel. I'm not sure after that, but I think Carson was somewhere in the 10-12 range. Stoked for him too.