Team Xtreme,We've been back almost a week now and I'm finally getting an email to you about the National Senior Olympic Games in the San Francisco bay area that several of you have been asking about. The Games are held every other year by a new host city. We got a new ISP at home which was just activated the other day and I've been busy getting caught up at the office, so here are the results.
It was a long three day drive to San Mateo. No option to fly with 2 bikes and lots of wheelsets. One of the race officials had previously told me in an email to "rest assured, it never rains here this time of year". The morning of the first road race (20K) stated with light rain. but it mostly dried up by race start. All 4 races were held on the same 6-mile course which was closed to traffic and consisted on some nice rollers, some long and but not overly steep. IMHO, the courses were not challenging enough to break up the large pack until the VERY END where the course climbed nearly 200-ft in less than a 1/2 mile. I predicted that there would be crashes at the base of the hill after a fast downhill just before a sharp left hand turn up the start of the big S-bend hill. Everyone, especially the sprinters, were trying to be the first into the turn. About 10 riders were ahead of me when a crash occurred on my far right. It became a slugfest of lactic acid and I finished 5th overall, barely catching the 4th place rider at the line by inches. The winner was from Washington state.
The 40K RR the next day was pretty much the same, except it was much more spirited. They started the 50-54 pack 1-min ahead of us, and as we came down the big-s-bend downhill in a neutral rollout, and then turned right onto the course, we had to stop. There was already a nasty crash in the 50-54 race. Three riders were down and 1 had to exit the race. Once we restarted, the attacks began. I threw in a few attacks myself, and chased down everything that broke. There was one attack that we all rested from, when two riders snuck off the front. They didn't attack, they just slowly rode off the front. Nobody reacted, and next thing they had a nice gap. Found out later that one of the lead riders in our group, who had won the 20K, was essentially "blocking" for another Washington rider in the breakaway. Although I make several concerted efforts with other riders to reel them in, there was not enough sustained effort to catch them. The majority of riders just sucked wheel. Despite the pace, virtually the entire pack remained intact. So I rode hard down the final downhill, and was the first rider in the pack to make the turn at the base of the climb. Several riders passed me but I was able to pass a few and finished 5th again - another "podium finish".
Two days rest, then the 5K and 10K TT's were held on the same course - 5K in the AM, 10K in the early PM. They had hired a professional co. to score the races. They used a nice start ramp and riders were required to fasten transponders to their front wheel for all 4 races for "instant and accurate timing and results". Well, officials didn't know that the city had recently installed wires under the road which messed up the timing devices so they had to score it manually. They were accurate, but we were not provided the results of the 5K until AFTER the 10K was completed!
I ended up with the Silver medal in the 5K, riding a 6:52 at an average pace of 27.1 MPH. When I swept all 4 events with Gold 2 years ago in Louisville, KY, I had set a new 55+ age-group distance record then with a 7:11, so although I bettered my time by 0:19, I got beat by 9 secs this year. The good news was that I had beat the Washington St guy (who had won the 20K RR) by LESS than a second! Scott Sifferman from Missouri won the Gold. Fourth place was just 3 secs back, and 5th was 10 secs back.
Then things really started to heat up. Temps reached 95-100. The winds calmed and there was an air inversion where the air quality turns bad. Riders were hacking and getting dehydrated. Plus the waiting around for hours in the heat for the results was not helping. The 10K started as scheduled. Had I known the results of the 5K I might have changed wheels. But I finished 3rd in the 10K (14:28) with Bronze, getting beat out of Silver by just 1 sec by the Washington guy who I had beat out in the 5K. Scott won the Gold again. The 4th place rider behind me was just 2 secs back (he had placed 2nd in the 40K breakaway), and 5th place was just 3 secs back! Overall for all riders 50+, I had finished 4th in the 5K and 5th in the 10K. It was also amazing to see the winners of both of the 60+ and 65+ age groups ride sub 15:00 in the 10K TT.
In general, the competition was very keen. The only guys that rode better than I were essentially the new 55 year olds that were new to the age group. The NSGA put on a nice BBQ the evening of the last event. Other Omaha riders included Team Kaos riders Suzanne Wilson (2 podium finishes), Gary Schmidt (2 - 8th places), and Doug Semisch and Steve Kramer. Jody and I spent the next 3 days hiking in Yosemite where temps hit 98 in the Valley. Six days of driving round-trip was a bit much, but a great experience overall.
- Fred Galata
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