Heat at 5/17 Grasshopper Race

By Alex MacSwain
Attrition began during the last couple days of record heat. Still about 55 – 60 racers showed with a handful of Nor Cal pros and bearded hard cores out of the wood works from across the north bay up through Sonoma County.

It was your usual Grasshopper start with a road promenade that went up the back side of the Sonoma Lake dam. Just before entering the single track up a last steep road jaunt, the selection was made led by about 10 and another 14 not far behind. I was just back from this second pack and followed by about 40 other riders.

Den placed a curse on himself just before the ride saying he never gets flats. 2 miles into the single track, Den was the first victim with a flat. Shortly following, on a sharp, loose right hand turn, a rider was next to the trail with his bike down. Six feet below him in a rocky creek bed, two fast guys were were making their way back up to the trail with their bikes. Their shaken expressions and a bloody knee down in a creek made you imagine the fall. Fifteen minutes later Rick Hunter was down with a mechanical. In any other race any of these riders would have caught me in five or ten minutes. I believe they each followed up their problems with fast hard efforts, which were tackled by the heat and climbs. An hour had gone by and I was psyched no one was closing in on me.

Sweet undulating winding trails, up and down, up and down with climbs ranging from short stabs of 10 yds to .75 mi, increasing heat, a great amount of shade in the 1st half, the occasional breeze on some of the crests and a ton of exposure the second half. Passed two in creek crossings, another on a climb, another and then another for a total of about five over an hour and fifteen minutes.

The sun seemed to sear your arms. Focusing on deep bikram yoga breaths, not looking up hill on climbs, relaxing arms and shoulders coupled with an attitude of making the climb, helped me pull through. Apperciating the shade and generating as much speed as possible on the down hills to generate wind to cool you down really helped.

Just before the last climb, Cameron and another rider had just taken a dip in the lake. Cameron yelled something which didn’t register for about thirty seconds. I realized he said something like “this is it, you’re close, good job”. To finish the ride – exposed and ‘steep’ for one mile. 103 degrees. Way hotter than the 77 at the start. With a name like Bummer Peak, I knew this final climb was going to be the most heinous of the day.

Carl was hurting and walked a bit. Then another rider was not far off. Soon I saw a couple heads and then three and four and their full bodies came into view with about eight people clapping. I could not believe I got tenth! Woohooo. To land in that class was once in a lifetime! The first thing I did when I got home was read Rick Hunter’s article in Bike Mag about his 2500 mile race across the great divide.