By Amanda Eaken -- Cat's Hill Crit (W3/4) -- 05/13/06
As pre-race anticipation goes, it’s tough to beat Paul Sherwyn announcing YOUR race over OLN during the Giro coverage the night before the race. “We estimate 700 racers will descend on Los Gatos for the legendary 23% Cat’s Hill criterium. For Bay Area cycling fans, you do not want to miss this one.” Hey babe, that’s us, that’s my race! Sweet.
We pull into the crowded but quaint neighborhood streets that will house the Cat’s Hill Criterium and there’s a tangible excitement to the air. The race announcer’s voice is bellowing through the quiet tree lined streets and we quickly park the car and head over to reg to get a peek at the legendary climb.
Laurie, Julie, Amy, Monique, Katie, Elis, Sarah and I gather for the pre-race meeting on somebody else’s lawn. Laurie crafts a pre-race plan that solidly covers the individual goals and team goals. Amy and Katie will attack pretty much off the line, or just after the first climb, Elis and Amanda will work to give Sarah a lead out for the finish. Monique and Laurie will work on positioning and climbing.
Off the line the Los Gatos girls Jen Van Muckey and Lisa Penzel attack and set a fast pace for the group. This is after all their race to host, so they might as well start it off in style. The course is shaped like a gigantic backwards L, and the start finish is half way along the bottom of the L. This is a short race. We will do just 10 laps. This will be a fast race. And it will hurt. We round the first right hand turn, watching out for the infamous seams in the road that the race announcer is sure to remind us can swallow a bike wheel whole and ruin your race if you don’t watch out. Another fast right turn and we are approaching the climb itself. I haven’t actually taken a look at the climb, I’ve just heard the horror stories. For my part, I’ve imagined the 22nd street hill in Noe Valley btw. Church and Sanchez, even though I know that hill is something closer to 32%, I’m thinking the worst. Sarah Lightfoot has warned me that every year some girl screws up the shifting and has to dismount and walk up the hill – out of the race, in disgrace. I promise myself not to make this mistake. Heading towards the 90 degree Left hand turn, I shift into my little ring early. I also shift into my 25 in the rear and try to take some good momentum into the climb.
This hill is well-lined, and it makes me feel like I’m riding in one of the grand tours. It’s the kind of hill where the fans want so badly to help the riders out up the brutal climb that they lean far out into the air space over the race course to volunteer their shouts of encouragement. And it works. There are at least 5 people that know and scream my name going up that hill and it’s a pretty incredible feeling. And suddenly we’re at the top of the steep part! Shoot, I think, that wasn’t SO bad. A little flat, a little downhill and a gradual up and we are at the top of the L. And there goes Amy on cue, attacking just when everyone hurts the most, where does she get that energy from? Thank God she’s gone, I think, now it’s my duty to sit up and rest! Another right hand turn and flat, and then another right and we are sweeping down the far long side of the L, trying to pick out the bad pavement from the shadows, and then the final right turn onto the bottom start/finish straight away. PHEW!
Amy is out of sight for a while and I’m feeling pretty optimistic that she might stay away. This is the rare kind of crit where a single rider could actually have a go of it because wind is not such a factor and sometimes an individual can descend and corner more quickly alone than she could in a pack. She could potentially climb faster too because not everyone gets the gearing right every time going into this hill and sometimes you get stuck behind someone in a gear that’s too high and they slow you way down.
I think somewhere between 1-2 laps later the pack catches up with Amy and she is spent. She has set a very fast pace for the pack which I think has already dwindled to maybe 12 riders from the original 30. This is where this race gets difficult to narrate from any perspective but my own, so I apologize for the necessarily self-centered perspective. Riders in this lead pack include Katie, Sarah and me, two girls from Palo Alto, one girl I’ve never met before but whose number I offered to pin just before the line, Jen Van Muckey, Lisa Penzel and a few others I don’t remember. It seems that every time up that hill the fans get louder, my head gets a little more blurry, and some crazy girl has to attack or at least push the pace at the top of the steep pitch. But then there’s always a fair amount of time to rest on the descent and the flats and to make sure to get into the right gear going up the hill. My lasting impression is that the Palo Alto girl is NOT doing a great job with the gearing, because it looks like she is ripping her legs off at a VERY low cadence up the climb every time, which hurts. One lap, I forget to shift into low gears in the back and I pay for it with some very brutal yanks on the pedals. I won’t forget the next time. Despite the small tradeoff in momentum, I hit the hill in my 25 or 27 each time and every time up the steep hill I seem to be passing people.
Zip zip zip, up and down and zip around, and I am terrible with remembering to look at the lap cards. I see Katie point two fingers at the ground just ahead of me and I think that this can’t possibly be two laps to go, we just barely started. But swoosh down the hill, around the turn and indeed the 1 lap to go is showing and the bell is ringing. Man this race went fast. At this point I think there are maybe 6-8 of us left in the final group, including me and Katie from Metromint. Katie has said in the pre-race meeting that she would like to get points for the upgrade, I have said that I want to work on teamwork, so I will do a lead out. We have decided that a good place to attack would be just after the steep part of the climb, when everyone is hurting. Trick is, when we get there, the pace up that climb was so fast that I am also needing to recover and don’t have an attack left in me. Katie looks over to see if I’m going to attack and I shake my head at her. In a valiant move, she decides to attack at this point which is good because it hurts the other girls in the race, but I also have to hustle to catch back on. Sweeping down the hill I see a blur of other riders, but make up some time down the hill and shout at Katie that I am coming around her left side and she should get on my wheel. I take the final right turn as fast as I can and immediately out of the corner stand up to give Katie a sprinting lead out towards the finish line. I am surprised to not feel Katie come around me, and I roll across the line in first to turn around to see Katie behind me. I'm in shock. I did not expect to win this race. Jen Van Muckey crosses the finish line behind Katie for 3rd, complaining later that we stole her spot on her home turf podium.
This is a fantastic race. Brutal, technical, interesting, and deserving of its legendary status. I will definitely be back next year.