Devil's Punch Bowl Road Race - 2011

I spent the night at the Pearblossom Inn, the same place I stayed when I rode this race in 2009.  It has the advantage of being cheap, quiet, clean, and within a couple of miles of the start of this hilly road race.  This is the first year that there has been a 55/60+ combined category race, which is why I decided to ride it again.  I've ridden on this course as long ago as the mid 80s, and it has never failed to cause me consternation.  In 1987, give or take, I rode it as a Master's 35+.  The field had Kenny Fuller, Skip Cutting, myself, and about 40 other riders whose names escape me now.  I was still using a seven speed cluster, but 8 speed hubs and cassettes were already in common use.  I remember putting a 13-23 seven speed thread on cluster and a 54x42 chainring combination.  I thought (foolishly) that a 54x13 would be easily a big enough gear for the reputedly fast descent.  I remember making it over the top of the first climb with the leaders, only to have them ride away from me on the descent.  I was completely spun out in the 54x13 and they just gapped me.  I had nearly caught them before the 90 degree right hand turn at the bottom when a car pulled out in front of me and came to a complete stop at the corner, effectively ending my chance of regaining the group.  The rest of the ride was a gruelling solo effort where I occasionally caught and passed riders who had been shelled off the lead group, but I never saw them close up again, ever.  The finish that year was especially brutal, because after four laps and well over 6000' of climbing, the finish was up yet another six miles of steep climbing that went all the way to the infamous Devil's Punchbowl itself.  I finished a disappointing 11th.  Fast forward to the present and I've ridden the course twice since 2009, once in a 50+ group (no 60+ category then, not even a 55+).  I placed 16th, but was the 2nd place 60+ finisher.  Not very satisfying.  Last year I rode it with a bunch of 45 year olds, tough bike thugs all of them, into a 25 mph uphill headwind.  Grr.  I was 17th.

So, this year's story:

I got to the course around 7:30, signed in, pinned on my number and started warming up.  It was about fifty degrees and so far the promised wind had not come up.  My goal was to be completely warmed up so as to be ready for the hard push up the first climb.  I was sure there would be a serious selection there.  I had studied the list of pre-registered riders, and amongst the 17 60+ riders there was only one guy who might be a real threat, a rider from Central California, Mike Morotta.  The 55+ field looked strong, with the UC Cyclery club (always a big threat to any SoCal race, especially in the criterium arena) dominating the entrants.  When I got there I found that there were several walk ups, including Kenny World Champion Fuller.  At the line there were approximately 40 riders ready to go.  As I thought, the push came when the road tilted up, and it came fast.  I was ready and made the bridge to the lead group, which consisted of myself, Kenny Fuller, Mike Morotta, and about five or six 55+ riders.  Off the front was Kal Szkalak of UC Cyclery, and a guy no one knew, Robert Downs from Wisconsin.  I was glad just to be in the lead group, and wasn't worried about those two.  Especially since I knew Kal wasn't a climber (even though he is a killer sprinter and a threat at the end of any race).  He made it over ahead of us only because he went from the gun and got a good enough gap to hold us off (it was such a cool move, I had to applaud it, it was so unexpected).  We caught him on the back stretch and things settled down briefly, and a few of the dropped riders caught back on, including Mike Birditt.  I was probably spending too much time at the front covering moves the UCC guys were making because I didn't want to get left behind.  Kenny was near the front but I never saw him actually take a pull, which was a way smarter way to ride.  But then, he could pull out an explosive jump to bridge a gap if it merited it, and I lack that so have to find other ways to stay in contention.  The Wisconsin guy jumped off again and took Mark Huffman from... you guessed it... UC Cyclery with him and they built up a good lead going into the second lap.  I thought it was someone else at the time.  On the second time up the steep section the lead group fractured again, with six riders pulling away.  I was late on the reaction and ended up in no man's land, just off the back of the newly formed lead group, but way out ahead of the rest.  It was untenable.  Two guys fell off on the second part of the climb (Steve Bernede and David Benner, I believe) and I briefly joined them, hoping they'd add something positive to the work load and together maybe we could rejoin.  That was a mistake, as they were blown, and I lost time with them.  I headed off on my own up the rest of the climb, now into a stiff head wind and I saw the remaining four crest the top and speed downhill out of sight.  I thought to myself, now I'm in a pickle and have to be able to solo all the rest of the way back so I don't lose what place I now have, i.e., I was 7th on the road and 2nd in the 60+ field, as Mike Morotta came off when I jumped to attempt to bridge the gap.  I went downhill as fast as I've ever gone, spinning out the 53x11 and then lowering myself to the top tube in a tuck.  I thought I was going like a bat out of hell, but Mark Helvie from ... UC Cyclery caught me near the bottom (where did he come from?) and we worked together laying down some speed on the rolling terrain leading back to the start/finish line.  I'd have to say we put some distance on anyone behind us, but we were too far back to catch the now six riders ahead of us, so we were riding for 7th place.  Fortunately for me, it was a long, uphill finish into a head wind.  After some initial parrying, I wound it up hoping Mark wouldn't be able to come around, and then stood up and punched it, upshifting as I went.  I had to avoid some bozo on a mountain bike (WTF?) who rode across the road in front of me about 50 yards from the finish (there was no crowd control here, a major drawback to the organization of the race) and I squeezed between his fat bike and a car and managed to take 7th overall, and 2nd behind Kenny Fuller.  Later, Kal Szkalak and Mike Birditt (another killer sprinter from SoCal) were sprinting for 9th and 10th in their category (55+) and Kal narrowly missed an oncoming car, which was driven by a rider looking for a parking place.  The finish was chaotic and dangerous and I have to fault the organizers for having absolutely no crowd control worth mentioning along the stretch leading back uphill to the start/finish line.  What was narrowly averted could have been a disastrous finish to the race by either myself or worse, for Kal.  Also, on the high speed descent there are streets that feed out to the road we descend upon.  In the past they've had course monitors there to stop traffic until descending riders have passed.  Not this year.  I narrowly avoided being a grill ornament on a car about to make a left hand turn onto the course.  The car saw me and stopped, and I swerved, but still, where was the course monitor?  Just not there at all.  I was not pleased, and neither were several others that I spoke to after the race.

Final results:
1st:  Robert Downs  55+
2nd: Kenny Fuller     60+
3rd:  Michael Mueller  55+
4th:  Mark Huffman   55+
5th:  Steve Hensler    55+
6th:  Robert Wilcox   55+
7th:  Jim Morehouse  60+
8th:  Mark Helvie       55+

For full results, see:

http://www.scnca.org/schedule2011.asp?event=Devils+Punchbowl+RR&rank=2

post script:  Without having actually asked this question, in retrospect, Kenny Fuller had to be driving the last miles of this race, since, of the four riders chasing (ahead of me, and then me and Mark Helvie), Kenny was isolated with three (count them) UC Cyclery riders trying to slow things down.  Kenny told me he (they???) caught Huffman and Downs on the last uphill straight before the finish.  I'm sure Kenny had to be doing all the work from the split all the way to the finish, as surely the UC boys wouldn't be doing any work, given Huffman was out ahead.  Kenny took second in that bunch, and he was all alone as far as team mates go.  This is yet another remarkable finish by Ken Fuller (I knew him as Ken back in the day... only in recent years has he been called Kenny ... to my knowledge).

There is another story I have about Ken, back in the wild cat days of the "Como" Sunday ride.  Maybe one day I'll tell it.  It involved pot holes, two broken wheels,  and a pair of great Marines.