Berkeley Hill Road Race Report from Jason T (2022)

EVENT: Berkeley Hills RR
CATEGORY: P12
DATE: 4/23/2022
AUTHOR: Jason Tang
TEAMMATES: Marcus, V, JJ, Stuart, Sergei
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The classic three bears loop - mostly rolling terrain with a couple tougher 3-4 minute climbs and a hilltop finish on Papa Bear. P12 does five laps through the bears for about 90 miles and 8,000 ft of climbing.
PREVIOUS RESULTS: Surprisingly, this was my first time racing BHRR.
WEATHER: Mostly sunny with a moderate westerly wind. About 50 at the start and low 60s by the finish.
PLAN:
-Stuart, Sergei, and JJ cover moves in the first few laps.
-Marcus and V try to save some energy and help out in the later laps if possible.
-I get to sit in and save bullets for the last lap.
RESULT: 4th/38RACE SUMMARY:I was definitely a bit nervous going into this one as BHRR was my main early season goal. Copperopolis was a good confidence booster the week before, but I knew this one would attract a bigger field with the better weather, location, and somewhat less masochistic nature of the course. I also struggled a bit to get into the racing zone as being heavily involved in the Berkeley Omnium planning meant a bit of a hectic pre-event week. However, I knew the finish would suit me and I had a team ready to help me get there as fresh as possible.The first couple of laps were fairly uneventful thanks to the team jumping in dangerous looking moves and injecting some pace to bring back ones we missed. I think the most stressful moment of the first couple of hours was trying to get a bottle from the rather chaotic feed zone (shout out to Sean and the other Dolces for picking us out to get us our bottles). I had another small scare when I reached for a gel and realized I must have lost one at some point (thanks to Alex Chiappetta for handling next day course trash pick up!). I rolled up to Stuart and JJ to see if they had any food to spare and they kindly each gave me a gel - a small moment in the race that probably made a big difference as I ended up eating both.The third time up Papa Bear, Nate pushed the pace a bit and a few cracks began to appear in the remaining field. I stayed toward the front to avoid having to jump gaps, but hesitated to give too much as I sensed most of the group would be able to come back over the top and on the descent. Once back onto SPDR, it was mostly back together and I was glad to see V made it back on as this felt like prime time for a dangerous move to go. The KaiVelo duo, Nate and Art, tested out the field with some attacks, but neither of them could get away (yet). The flurry of attacks ended up launching another solo rider off the front, but I wasn’t too concerned about this as it was still a long way to go and the group had some firepower left in it. Approaching the bears for the fourth time, Nate threw down another attack and I was relieved to see V follow it. Shortly after, a Terun rider went after them to form the most threatening break of the day.As we rolled along SPDR for the final time, the moto informed us that Nate, V, and the Terun rider had joined up with the solo rider and that the gap to the group of four was a bit over a minute. I figured the original escapee would be a bit tired and also overheard some Terun riders saying that they weren’t confident in their teammate’s chances in the break, so I just sat in, thinking that V’s kick might be good enough to win from the break (despite him claiming that he was good to “smash for 1 or 2 hrs…not more than that”) if they stayed away. However, we soon saw that the Terun rider and original break rider were dropped, so Terun hit the front, realizing they could either bring V and Nate back or race for third.We caught them near the top of Mama Bear and I was pleasantly surprised to see that V was still fresh enough to throw down a couple more small attacks to make others chase. We hit the bottom of Papa Bear with a group of about ten and a Terun rider setting tempo. He swung off when we hit the steeper gradients with a parting “have fun.” Art put in an acceleration that drew a group of five clear and I was able to stay in the wheels, recalling everyone’s advice to be patient with this finish. However, when Chris Coble dropped the hammer with 200 meters to go and blew the remaining group to pieces, I simply didn’t have the speed left in my legs to follow and rolled across the line in fourth.Very grateful to the team for showing up in numbers for this one and supporting me. I was initially slightly disappointed to miss out on the podium, but am now proud of the ride and feel I gave everything I could on the day. More importantly, I am thrilled that the inaugural Berkeley Omnium was a success and it was so cool to see everyone having a good time. Huge thank you to everyone who volunteered their time over the past days/weeks/months/years to make this happen!

Race Report from Jason Tang