2012 Santa Barbara Century

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/25670266

Attendees:  Shannon, Todd, Galen, Jeremy and me

When this Santa Barbara Century came up a couple months ago, someone came up with the brilliant idea of vying for the team KOM challenge.  I was all for just going up and hanging out with the guys hoping to cheer from the sidelines but somehow got roped into being part of the team.  We were under the impression that there was a minimum of 5 to form a team, so I figured I may as well since that's exactly how many of us planned to go.  You may think that makes me a team player, but believe me, I was pissin' and moaning the last few weeks before because I knew it was going to be a sufferfest given the strength the others attending have shown in their climbing.  Either that or I was severely going to affect their results and be blamed for blowing the challenge.  Talk about pressure.

One cool thing about the weekend was Todd and Pam found us a nice place to stay just up the street from the Start/Finish (you even pass it on the way back).  It was just across the street from the ocean and had all sorts of amenities like a jacuzzi, large ocean facing deck, garage, outside and inside showers, etc., that made for an awesome location for post-ride festivities.  Lisa was suppose to accompany me and Dina was going with Shannon, but both ended up not being able to make it in the end.  Nevertheless, the post-ride festivities drinking beers and eating pizza from the jacuzzi definitely made it memorable.

Here's a panoramic view from the front:

Given how it's been mostly hot the last few weeks, we were glad to see that the expected temperatures for the day of the ride was going to be fairly mild with the highs barely exceeding the 70's.  However, we woke up to find that these mild temperatures were actually going to be accompanied with some precipitation.  Now I wouldn't say it was raining or even call it a slight drizzle, but it was definitely quite damp when we woke up, so this presented an unexpected element to the day's ride as well as the KOM challenge.  As expected, the other guys never even flinched and were still eager to go and get it done.

Craig, one of the guys who ride with us on occasion as well as with Shannon on some of the mountain bike outings, also showed up and left with us where the plan was to ride a moderate pace to the base of the hill climb.  Talking in the jacuzzi the night before, we even made sure Galen, the group cowboy, was aware of this strategy so we can apply all our efforts to the  challenge.  Surprisingly, everyone conformed and we rode with a group without really putting out too much effort.  However, as there was some climbing in the early part of the ride before the challenge, once we hit one with a pretty decent pitch, Jeremy, Galen and Todd took off to test out their legs.  I was even a little guilty of pulling ahead of most of the group, but I did pull it back once I realized it and slowed back down.  Shannon, in his infinite climbing wisdom, never let himself waste more energy than needed, so he stayed back and was just saving it ALL for the climb. Having climbed the hill the day before, he knew full well what he was up against, so it always makes me nervous when he's falling back early on.

The roads were still quite slippery as we were working our way to the SAG just before the climb, and as expected the wet roads took its toll on a few riders who didn't have enough respect for wet roads.  Todd saw a crash happen after a couple guys passed him, and Shannon saw 3.  There were definitely some technical roads on the way out and we even went over a lose gravel section and some cobblestones, but all of us managed to be incident free.

For the section just before the climb, we remembered it was a part of the Cool Breeze double metric century we did last year, but we were definitely going a lot slower than then.  We still passed some people here and there, but we were also getting passed where we exercised a lot of self-restraint doing so.  As we got closer to the base of the challenge, one guy had passed us and started to point out how we were going so slow that girls were passing us.  I looked at him and said "oh yeah?   Let's see who gets to the top of the KOM challenge first."  He laughed but a little nervously, and then when we did one last climb before the challenge, he fell back and that was pretty much the last time I remember seeing him.

We all regrouped at the base of the challenge, and once we were all ready to go, we all started across the timing mat together.  I was the last one to go over, and just after going over, wanted to go back to my big chainring up front but after a few misshifts, I opted to just increased the gearing in the back.  Of course, once I got going, the other guys had gotten a pretty good gap on me.  I knew it would be pointless to try and close the gap early on, so I just dug in and prepared for a climb on my own.

I was working and passing people as I made my way up, while I watched the guys pull away ahead of me.   I had a good pace and was definitely planning my output based on what I saw from driving up the day before...plenty of solid hills with not a lot of reprieve.  It was also on very narrow roads with conditions that one would expect to see only in 3rd world countries.  Santa Barbara, are you reading this?

I did see a familiar face as I was making my way up, and it was Craig who took off just ahead of us.  I was thinking he was going to be able to match my pace, but he didn't jump on as I passed.  Thus, more solo climbing for me.  I kept reeling people in one by one and looking ahead trying to see if I can catch a glimpse of the other guys.   After about 3/4 to 2/3 of the way up, I thought I recognized one of our jerseys.  When he stood up to climb, it confirmed for me it was Jeremy.  I could see that I was making some ground on him, so I expected to catch and have him ride with me.  However, I guess his break from training due to illness may have gotten to him where after I passed, he only rode with me for a little bit.  Once it pitched up steeper at one point, that's when I started to pull away.  I did hear him groan at a point while we were riding together, so that was an indicator that he was not having one of his better days.

In the end, Shannon finished first, Galen, Todd, me, then Jeremy.  It was a lot of climbing over with and we were all ecstatic that the challenge was over.  However, we didn't really realize there was STILL a lot of climbing left to do.  We still had 5 more miles of climbing to do to get to a required check point to get a finisher's medal and/or wine glasses.  Then, after coming down from that, there was some descending followed by even more climbing.  Now considering Jeremy rode 7 sisters every week for a while, you just know there was a lot of hills on this ride when he was complaining about yet another climb.

And for every climb, usually they are followed by a downhill that more than makes up for all the pain suffered for climbing.  However, the descents on this ride were some of the most technical, if not the most technical, I've ever seen on an organized ride.  I wonder how many people actually crash on this ride given how technical some of the descents were.  Jeremy had a helluva time slowing on his carbon wheels and at one point almost ran into a truck coming up the hill on the opposite side of the road.  There were still some wet sections, the roads were trashed and super narrow, and there were switch backs and even a toilet bowl that required a high level of technical skill to maneuver through.  I know I found myself on the opposite side of the road once or twice as did the others. 

After all the climbing and descending, we met at a SAG with just a little over 25 miles left.  After regrouping, we were off.  Galen, the cowboy that he is, led us for a while at speeds upward of 26 to 27 mph.  We sat behind him comfortably as he did so and we just needed to get him to release some of that crazy energy he had.  Once he finally started to slow, we began taking turns and we were moving pretty fast as a group where no one even tried to jump on with us.  We were passing people at an insane clip that it was probably impossible for someone to do so without knowing that we were approaching at the speeds we were.

The guys kept pushing the pace all the way to the end, and Jeremy was the first casualty.  I ended up dropping after I started experiencing some cramps, but Shannon and I worked together after he waited for me letting Todd and Galen go nuts ahead of him.  I hadn't experienced cramps like that for a while, but it was nice to know that Shotbloks still worked well in fighting these.  I would get some relief from the Shotbloks, catch up and work with Shannon, and then hit the repeat button.  This happened all the way to the end of the ride.   It was nice to pass the house where we stayed with Pam cheering us on as we did.  Woo hoo!

Jeremy made his way back shortly after, and it turned out he made a friend on the way.  While we were eating, a guy came up to him and said "hey, aren't you the sick guy?"  Of course, he was outed at that point where we expected even more people to approach and say the same thing.  LOL.  Sorry, Jeremy, but I told you it would make the blog.   Jeremy's the young one of the bunch, so he knows I'm just pushing him to beat me up on our next cycling event.  It's how we do. 

So after all that reading above, I'm sure you're ready to read about the team KOM results.  Looking at the times, they posted our results first and we were the only ones on there.  Our times, as a group, were definitely great considering that Shannon, Galen and Todd were in top 11 overall.  With mine and Jeremy's time being in the top 40, we thought we had it.  However, after the announcer read the results of the top two, we found ourselves not even in the running.  What we didn't realize was that a team can actually consist of more than 5 where they would pick the top numbers of the team.  Further, they adjust the times based on a person's age, so if you're collecting Social Security, you have a REAL good chance of winning the team challenge.  I'm not going to take anything away from the other teams, as there were some good results here and there, but as far as a group averages I think we should have been up there.  I'm still quite proud of how our team did regardless of their "official" results.

As for repeating this century in the future, Shannon and I agreed this is one we can check off our team bucket list and not have any problems in never doing it again.  The SAGs were good, but the "required" stops, the road conditions, the hill profile, etc., just doesn't make for a ride that seems worth repeating in the future.  Etc. does include the rules.

The after party was great, and like always, I always feel the need to apologize to those in attendance for my behavior...especially Pam.  Pam is great though, and I'm glad she was able to make it out with us for this event despite the other women not being able to.  She's been the best team cheerleader and I hope she continues to come out with us despite my behavior.

Thank you all for coming out and representing as always.  Shannon, 6th overall is crazy, and Galen and Todd kicked arse as well.  Jeremy, considering this is your second outing, awesome job and much respect, young man.  Once again, people should remember who Team Broadcom is and what we're about because of you guys.  I love this team. 

Update:

Link to team results here:  http://www.santabarbaracentury.org/2012%20Team%20Results.htm

I created a table that showed the winners based on ACTUAL time:

	La Grange	Velo Allegro	Broadcom
Top 5 Times	0:46:05	0:45:07	0:45:25
	0:48:56	0:45:00	0:43:55
	0:46:21	0:47:52	0:45:03
	0:50:26	0:54:23	0:50:03
	0:49:29	0:56:59	0:50:30
Combined Times	4:01:17	4:09:21	3:54:56
Average	0:48:15	0:49:52	0:46:59

Go Team BRCM!