Pre race day. May 3, 2016 The boys,
Jonathan Baker and
Mike Castaldo of the
Chico Masters Cycling Team,
have taken a long practice ride up to Pinos Altos. Later we meet them
for lunch at
Q's Southern Bistro. Very nice food, but the service is
a bit slow. After lunch the boys take off to get prepared for
tomorrow. Jon says no dinners out until between the time trial and
the criterium.
Day 1 May 4, 2016 The race began for us
early Wednesday morning, as we had to get up to walk over to Gough
Park before 730AM. Jon and Mike were already there.
We knew Mike had
hurried Jon along. Jon likes to be just in time, but Mike is more
like me and arrives a bit early to avoid being late. We have brought
along some old Herbalife musettes, feeding bags, and Jon decides that
we will use them. I borrow a marker pen to label them BAKER 1 and
BAKER 2. As Jon leisurely bikes off to sign in with a few minutes to
go before the start for the
Master Men A at 8AM, we drive off in
Mike's truck to make the first feed zone on NM211 at the town of Gila
23 miles from the start.
They are here much earlier than we expect as
they are being whipped along by a terrific tail wind. Mike passes up
the musette from me and gets a water from the neutral feed. William
passes his bag off to Jon.
We pick up some dropped bottles and
clothes the boys discarded before racing off in the truck to get
ahead of the race back on US180 to get to feed zone 2 outside of
Glenwood. Thankfully, we have time to stop at a Forest Service
campground for a nature break right before the feed zone.
At this
feed zone we saw one rider out in front of the group by about 2 and a
half minutes. This time Mike takes his musette, but I don't see
where he dropped it. We pick up more dropped bottles and follow the
peloton to the parking lot at the bottom of the Mogollon, pronounced
mug-ee-on, climb. The road up to the finish before the town of
Mogollon is very steep and narrow, 6.7 miles long. Only officials and
riders go up there. The riders coast back down to their support
vehicles. So we wait.
Finally, Jon and Mike come back down
together. Jon waited until about 9 miles to go and then rolled off
the front of the peloton. He caught the other rider and finished in
front of the next rider by almost 2 minutes. They had raced 72.9
miles.
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Me and the boys
|
We leave just as the parking lot is becoming insanely clogged
with other vehicles. On the way back William spots a woman with
Mike's musette in her hand. He gets it back. We looked where Jon
dropped his, but it was not to be found. Day 1 ends with the boys
dropping us back at the RV park.
Day 2 May 5, 2016 This race starts
later for the Master Men A, which is the category Jon and Mike are
racing in. So we roll out to the start at Fort Bayard in our tiny
Pleasure Way RV and park away from the course. Mike and Jon are
parked close to the course and are getting dressed and prepping their
bikes. I will be feeding Mike. He wants a banana at the first feed
and a water bottle with a gu gel attached at the second feed. Jon has
gotten his race leaders jersey just in time to pin the numbers on,
#701, and stuff some of his foil wrapped rice cakes in the back
pocket. Jon has his first feed water and a water with gu gel attached
in a cooler chest. There is neutral water at every feed zone.
We race off in the truck before the
race starts at 1020 to get to the first feed zone after Pinos Altos.
The hand offs go fine in the first feed. Mike gets his banana and Jon
his cold water. Then we have to turn around and go back on the
course, watching out for riders coming toward us to get to the feed
zone above San Lorenzo. Since there was only a quarter of a tank of
gas in the truck, we have time to stop and fill it up in Silver City
before heading out to San Lorenzo. We pass off the two bottles with
gu gel, pick up a lot more discarded bottles and race back toward
Fort Bayard. We are following the peloton now, but when we get to the
intersection of NM 152 and NM 356 the peloton stays on 152, but we
turn and race off on 356 into the town of Bayard. Kind of a long
short cut, but we can still drive faster than the peloton.
We race onto US180 and back up to Fort
Bayard. After parking in about the same place as the boys were before the race, we see that the
peloton is heading to the finish. We have time to take pictures. And
who comes blazing down the course, but Jonathan Baker! He adds a few
more seconds to his lead.
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| The winner |
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| talking to Cyndi |
Win number 2 in this 75 mile race. Jon
sings the praises of his new Trek Madone. This is a beautiful high
performance bike with all the cables in the tubes. It is built for a
maximum ability to cut through the air. Jon says it just sped up with
every shift of the gears.
North Rim Adventure Sports of Chico California provided this bike for him to use. Day 2 ends with us
taking pictures of the boys.
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| two wins |
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| two wins with the help of Mike |
Mike is so tired because he spent the
day protecting Jon from the wind. We'll see them tomorrow afternoon.
Day 3 May 6, 2016 After a leisurely
breakfast we are off to the tiny town of Tyrone for the time trial.
This is a hard time trial and famous for brutal winds. It was windy
enough in the morning and has just gotten worse, with winds 25mph+.
The pro riders raced in the morning, first the men and then the
women. The officials took a break then started again at noon with the
3,4 Women, the Men 4,5, the Master Men B and finally the Master Men
A, before the Men 3 and the Men 1,2. They send the riders off about
30 seconds apart (one minute for the last ten riders) with a break of
about 5 minutes between groups.
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| Mike warming up |
Mike started earlier and Jonathan, as
the race leader, was last for the
Master Men A. Jonathan does not
like to cool down by standing around at the starting line. His name
was called on the loudspeaker a number of times before we saw him
riding up. Another guy in line had said, hopefully, “Maybe Baker
won't show up.” But show up he did with a few minutes to spare. It
was so windy he decided not to use his disc wheels as they can be
hard to control in high winds.
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| Mike waits patiently |
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| 5,4,3,2,1 |
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| Go! |
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| Mike is off |
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| Jon is off after he shows up just in time |
The time trial is a 16 mile turn-around
course with 2 steep hills. On the turn-around Jon dropped his chain
and had to quickly fix it. He said he should have had a bigger chain
ring. On the way back down the last hill he was going so fast he had
to just coast and actually had to brake at one point as, at over 50
mph, he got a speed wobble. Jon came in third by just 0.10 seconds,
but added to his advantage over the guy in second place in GC, General Classification (the rider with the fastest overall time when all times are added together). He was
now ahead by 2 minutes and 22 seconds.
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| Jon cooling down |
Jon said we could take them
out to dinner tonight, so they came over to the RV park and parked
next to us. They ate their snacks and showered and I did some laundry
of their kits for them. We drove over to the
Jalisco Cafe and had a very
nice meal before it got crowded. Beer and good Mexican food is a good
way to celebrate.
Day 4 May 7, 2016 The Master Men A are
scheduled to take off for the criterium race around downtown Silver
City at 11:25. They are to do 20 laps of the course for a total of
21.6 miles. It's not a flat course, though also not as uphill as
Nevada City. We walked over to the course and found the truck, per a
text from Jon, across from Jalisco.
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| Jon comes up last |
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| Ready to go |
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| Really ready to go |
Round and round, up and down
the course they go.
Near the start they give out primes, premium
prizes, to a rider who crosses the finish first on various laps. They
announce prime lap on the next lap as the riders come around. And
what tall rider in red comes thundering down the back stretch? It's
Jonathan Baker and the crowd goes wild.
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| Coming down to the line |
A few laps later another prime lap is
announced and again the big guy races over the line ahead of
everyone. The crowd loves it. Near the end of the race another rider
goes out in front. Jon's strategy for winning does not quite work as
he comes in second. But he still gains time for the GC. Jonathan
finishes the day with a 2 minute 34 second advantage. Jon got tapped
for doping control, since he has been so dominant in the race and is
the race leader. So he has to pee in a cup.
Then we all go over to Q's Southern
Bistro to celebrate with a snack and beer.
There are still other
races to watch. Very few names that I remember now in the Pro Men;
Danny Pate, Tom Zirbel and Chris Horner. A successful day all around
as we wave good bye to the boys and head back to the RV.
Day 5 May 8, 2016 The Gila Monster Road
Race is not as long for the Master Men A as it is for the Men 1,2 and
the Pro Men. Jon and Mike will only do 68.9 miles. It is a hilly
course, but they feel good and are fully acclimated to the altitude.
Everyone starts from Gough park early in the morning. The start times
and courses of the various groups are planned to avoid overlaps. But
as they say, “The best laid plans.” The boys start at 8:50 right
before the Pro Women. It seems to me that there are double the riders
here that there were in 2011, the last time we were here.
We take off before the boys and are
almost immediately stuck behind the Pro Men. This is not a group you
can pass as they are running a rolling closure with both lanes
heading out of town on US180, closed by police cars running flashing
lights. Driving at a crawl is never William's idea of a good time. So
after the Pro Men turn off onto NM152, we continue on 180 to the
Bayard turnoff. It's our trusty long short cut, good old NM356. We
race along hoping that all the police cars for miles around are
guarding the race. And we make it. We are able to turn back onto
NM152 before the rolling closure. We also pass the Men 4,5 and the
Master Men B prior to the feed zone on NM35 before Lake Roberts.
These groups are more spread out and easier to pass. They only get
one side of the road.
We are passing musettes today. Mine for
Mike has various food bits and one water bottle. William's for Jon
has two water bottles and one of Jon's special rice patties wrapped
in foil.
It is insanely crowded in the feed
zone. I figure that I have lots of time and visit with some support
crew for Eps Cyclists, a Hispanic group. But what is this? A car
comes through labeled UCI Men Lead Car! What happened to the Men 4,5
and the Master Men B? An Eps Cyclist worker explains that the Pro Men
would have overtaken those groups. They would have been neutralized
and moved to the side to allow the Pro Men to pass. After the Men 4,5
and the Master Men B, the Master Men A come through. There is a rider
in front and I time him ahead by 2 minutes 15 seconds. Mike is my
job, so I am concentrating on him and don't even notice Jon. Mike
gets his musette and I get a bundle of clothes and one water bottle.
I pick up the water bottle, even though Jon has said no more water
bottles, because this was the one Mike just used. I forgot to tell
Mike the time on the rider in front and I had forgotten to get his
number anyway, so I don't know if he is a threat to the GC. I walked
up a bit to look for the musette, but it's not around and the road is
tilting uphill, so I walk back to the truck.
Finally, William comes back with both
musettes and a story. Apparently on the sprint below the feed zone
the Pro Women had been timed as being within two minutes of the back
of the Master Men A peloton. So the decision was made to neutralize
the Master Men A. They were stopped at the top of the feed zone and
moved to the side, up and around a corner from where I was. They
wound up waiting 10 minutes for the Pro Women to pass. The women had
slowed down after the sprint. Then they had to wait another few
minutes for the women to move out ahead. The Master Men A rider up
the road had been stopped as well, then they all started back up
again.
The lone rider was chased down and at
the end it was Jonathan and 3 other riders vying for the lead.
Jonathan came over the finish line 9 seconds ahead of the second
place rider. But the announcers almost missed Jonathan coming over
the finish line because he was in a cluster of Pro Women. Then it was
off to doping control for Jonathan. More peeing in a cup. But William
and I miss the finish.
We turned around at the feed zone and
headed back to Silver City and planned to go up to Pinos Altos for the
finish. But one of a pair of touring cyclists who had been cheering
the racers had slumped over with a heart attack. We wound up waiting
while the road was closed 40 minutes for a helicopter to Life Flight
the patient.
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| Mike waiting for Jon to get out of doping control |
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| Jonathan Baker |
Finally Jonathan gets to have a podium.
This is the only time the Master Men A get a podium. But the
announcer, our friend Dave Towle, is lavish in his praise of Jonathan
and the Chico Masters Cycling Team.
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| The traditional cheek kiss |
Jon's final GC time advantage was 2
minutes 48 seconds. The boys are not overly tired and feel like they
might have even over-trained. Chico Masters Cycling Team can be proud
of this two person team representing them. They rode 255 miles while
climbing over 17,900 feet in five stages.
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| Mike Castaldo and Jonathan Baker |
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| Mike and his feed zone helper, me |
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| Mike and William Baker |
The boys cram everything and us in the
truck. Jon grumbles about loose bottles in the bed of the truck.
William and I pretty much claimed innocence. I think others around
the truck were tossing loose bottles in there at the feed zone, since
we weren't guarding it. The boys brought us back to the RV park. They
showered and sat around a bit and had a beer with William. But then
it was time for them to go. I will miss them both. But they will get
into Las Vegas late. That's their first stop on their way home to
Chico. We will stay on here another day before wending our way
leisurely back home.
On to Jerome and Jerome State Historic Park. The historic park preserves a historic mansion and tells the story of copper mining in the Jerome area.
