This was the big race weekend in San Francisco, the BMC San Rafael Criterium and the San Francisco Grand Prix back to back. All week leading up to this weekend the media was talking about cycling instead of baseball or American Football and everyone was talking about 'the man' - Lance Armstrong - everyone from the media to Joe or Josephine Punter. It was really funny watching these big burly ex-American football sports commentators get their tongues around 'Toor De Fraance' and 'Elp due Hooeez'.What was a cool thing was that San Francisco was going to be closed down for the race. SF's traffic is crap at the best of times so it would be a major gridlock - all down to a little ol' bike race.
BMC San Rafael Criterium
Saturday, Sunny 35C. This race was part of the national BMC series so all the top pros were there plus a bunch of eager amateurs.
I decided to ride the San Rafael crit a few days before the event, but I also needed to be at my sons first soccer game of the season so some lateral thinking was required. The pro/am and the soccer game clashed so I had to ride the 2nd category race.
I got there early and did the regulation turbo trainer warm up. I had just had a 1 week holiday at 7000ft so I had been feeling absolutely awesome, I now know what EPO feels like. Unfortunately altitude training wears off, just as mine was doing right now. I line up with the other 100 starters and just by looking at who was on the start line I could tell it was going to be a carnage filled event.
Off we went at Mach 10, typical 2nd cat race, the pro/am races start way slower than this. I immediately was having a really hard time drifting back and back and back until that was it, I was last wheel. The small hill was okay it was jumping out of the corners into the two long straights that was killing me. I guess that is what happens when you take 2 weeks off and suddenly jump into a fast crit.
Eventually the pace slackened off for a few laps, that was all I needed, I got my legs back and felt better. It took me what was left of the race to get within the first 10 of the peloton
As the last lap came up, the usual kamikazis seemed to be absent. Down the back straight (or straight -a- way as the commentator kept blaring) in the 11 cog, as I had been for the last 5 minutes. The only problem was the last 2 corners are down hill with the finish line 50 metres after the last corner!!. It was going to be interesting if nothing else. I guess that is the plan of any self respecting criterium organiser, the more dangerous the better - more crashes - more spectators.
So it was all on to be first into the corner and the 11 was fully cranked up. Through the 2nd last corner in 7th -8th when suddenly a bunch of guys try to go around the outside into the last corner. They were never going to make it and with a huge bang 2 guys right near the front hit the curb hard. One of the guys bikes flies up in the air like a helicopter blade, I duck under it as I go through and it collects the guy behind me big time. By the time I swerve through all the carnage, 10 guys have gone past and I'm just happy to get across the finish line in one piece. All the spectators were well impressed, nothing like a bit of carnage to keep them interested.
I stick around for a bit after the race and talk to Sarah Ulmer and Suzy Pryde. They are very happy with the prospect of jumping on a plane the next day to New Zealand. I watch some of the womens race and move on to the soccer game.
The game is a success, I grab my boy and we head back to the crit to watch what was left of the mens pro race.
The race is half way through with Floyd Landis of Mercury solo out front. It looks quick but smooth. Graham Millar looks very comfortable near the front of a big field. It starts to get fast as Saturn get on the front to gather in Landis. There is a lot of pressure for Mercury to win, mainly because they haven't won anything all year. They are the biggest team by far but have managed to make a dogs ear out of most of their races so far, this would be no exception.
So it all comes down to the last few laps, Mercury get on the front early to lead out Chris Horner. Millar is sitting comfortably in 3rd, 4th, as ever no one takes a wheel off Graham Millar. With a lap to go Mercury have blown up leaving a free for all, Mark McCormack launches it down the back straight and wins with a few seconds to spare. Millar fights it out with Jonas Carney and gets 3rd. Everyone is super impressed that Millar is an old boy but a very fast old boy.
I take my son over to meet Graham Millar I don't think he quite gets it when I tell him that we are the same age and raced as schoolboys together. Kinda like why don't you get top 3 in pro races Dad?
Sunday - San Francisco Grand Prix
This was the big one, a 130 mile (210km) slog around the North Beach area of San Francisco. In attendance all the US national teams some local teams a few Mexican and Belgium teams Saeco and US Postal of course. There was even a fair smattering of New Zealanders, Glen Mitchell, Brendon Vesty and Graham Millar.
It is a cold grey foggy SF day as I leave home to bike in to the race. With a ball game, a gay street party and the bike race all on the same day, I don't want to risk getting stuck in my car for a couple of hours on the way home.
I get across the Golden Gate through the Presidio and immediately hit a bunch of cops drinking coffee and eating donuts behind them the road closed signs are being erected. I jump on the empty race course and ride to the start/finish. There are hundreds of cops and volunteers blocking off every driveway, side street you name it, the man power is very impressive. It is also nice to have all the road to myself, its certainly the safest bit of riding I have ever done in the city - no cab drivers trying to kill me.
It is even colder and foggier in the city with no spectators to speak of - until I get to North Beach, which is the Italian part of town. Here there are plenty of people all set up at the street side cafes lattes in hand waiting for the race to arrive.
I finally get to the Embarcadero start/finish. Thousands of punters wander about most of them crammed up against the barriers where the riders are lining up for the start. It is too crowded to talk to any of the kiwi boys but I do see 'the man' Armstrong ride through to the line up. The crowd go crazy, full hero worship. He is smaller than I imagine and looks suitably cooler than cool.
It is way crowded so I get out of there and head off to meet some friends who have been on the hill since 6.30am. They assure me that it is necessary to get the best 'seats'. The 'hill' is Fillmore Street one of those streets in San Francisco that you see in the movies, the sort of thing that you really can launch your car off at the intersections a la Steve McQueen in Bullet, hey the cabbies do it all the time.
It goes straight up maybe only 300-400 feet high, 1 km long it gets steeper after each intersection the top 500m looks vertical. I turn into Fillmore right at the bottom this is where crowd starts and it justs get thicker and thicker all the way up. All other roads are closed so the only way to get to the top is on the course through the 13,000 people crammed into 2 footpaths 1km long. It is the most people I have ever seen at a bike race outside of the Tour de France.
I start at the bottom in the 21 and get into the the 23 after the first 100 metres, shit still 800m to go. Soon I'm just getting the bloody gear over and the last 2 blocks are hell. I find the guys right at the top and I have to lock my bike half way up a street side tree! I squeeze/push/pull my way into the prime barrier side position with the lads.
The race is 10 big laps using Fillmore then 5 smaller inner city laps. 10 laps of this beast of a hill will have guys on their knees.
I talked to a local pro a few days after the race, he said he had a 27 on the back and said he could have gone to a 29 no problem.
The TV helicopter signals the arrival of the race a small break has gone immediately with 2 Saturn guys in it, one is Trent Klasna who has been riding brilliantly all season. He looks good the other guys struggle and it is only the first lap.
Just to make it that bit different and so you know that this an American bike race the organisers have a DJ wandering about on the road right at the top of the hill. He is fully miked up and has techno house music hammering away in the background. He gets the crowd completely wound up as the bunch arrive and it is a wall of sound as the poor sods crawl their way up the hill. The bunch are not that interested and yet half the sprinters from yesterdays criterium are off the back already.
Millar, Mitchell and Vesty are there. Millar quits early but a lot later than the other team sprinters. Glen Mitchell and Brendon Vesty fight it out and finish 12th - 15th an amazing result considering the field and the course.
And so it goes on, more people arrive, the DJ does his stuff, its like being at a rave crossed with a bike race but it seems to work. After 6 laps another small group head off in pursuit of Klasna's lead group. That signals the hammer to be well and truly dropped by Armstrong and the Postal team. He and Ekimov launch it up the hill and blow the race to pieces. They work hard and in 1 lap get Hincapie up to the front group. Armstrong then pulls the pin, work done for the day. The last time up Fillmore the super impressive Klasna attacks again right in front of us, Hincapie easily gets on with 2 other guys biting the handlebars to get up there also.
So that is it, they head off on the 5 small inner city laps, we retire to my friends apartment all of 500m away. Pretty soon we are in front of the TV beer in hand watching live race action. Usual totally stupid commentary but you can't have everything. Its down to 4 then 3 guys. Hincapie is outnumbered 2 to 1 by the Saturn boys. Klasna has been out there all day and Hincapie looks great. The last lap up the last nasty little Taylor Street hill Hincapie attacks and solos away making it look easy.
He says later that when Armstrong works for you have to deliver, by the way he said it he wasn't joking. Everyone is extremely happy that an American won and a Postal rider at that. The mayor and all his offsiders declare the day a complete success and promise to support the bike race for the next few years.
I ride home firstly down the cliff like Fillmore Street then over the bridge. There are stacks of guys riding back, it is like a bike race everyone is going for it, the wannabe Hincapies and Armstrongs attack through Sausalito and promptly blow up on the next hill. Its cool I get home in half the time without having to face the wind once.
A major sporting weekend in a major US city and strangely enough it was for one of those weird minority sports. Still if it is going to happen, San Francisco is one of the few places in the states where weirdness is a way of life.
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