Owens Healthcare Cycling Team

Lemurian Race Report - Adam Pressman

Pandemic over-ish, recent rains, great turnout, weather in the low 70s. No excuses come to mind, so I guess it’s gonna happen. Jonz fires off the shotgun (which must have been legal or he wouldn’t have done it, right?) and nobody noodles away – the entire field hammers. My ever-present teammate (myself) and I go up the Escalator pretty hard. Myself and I get passed by half the planet on the way down into Whiskeytown. Jed is gone, Bill is gone. I’m in my own little pain orb which is fine. I have a small flask of pickle juice and and two sleeves of gel blocks. At this point I realize my patch kit/plugs, CO2, etc. is safely tucked away in the seat bag of my gravel bike back at home. I knew I was forgetting something when I left that morning.

We get onto the canal trail, and at times I see others way up ahead. I’m going as fast as I can, but not getting any closer. I don’t kill myself through that down/up across the creek with the rocky ledgey (that’s a word, right?) part, but that’s because I didn’t even pretend like I was going to ride it. We go up the climb from the horse turd lot, and I can barely see a couple others ahead. I feel like I rail the descent, but I have no reference point because I can see no one ahead or behind. Buckhollow … whatever … I didn’t crash but I didn’t fly either. Onto the gravel road and my heartrate is somewhere in the 150s, where it seems to have been since the gun went off. I get to that parking lot before more singletrack and there’s an aid station. A very kind volunteer is holding cups and I hear her say “Water? Crack?” I opt for the crack, which actually turned out to be Skratch hydration stuff. Skratch was a better offering than crack, I have to agree, but this report might have been more interesting if it were crack.

Cosmos is looming like … like a big, steep, loose, long climb in the middle of a race. I am actually looking forward to Cosmos, not because Cosmos is fun (It’s not, duh) but because it means that once Cosmos is behind me it is no longer looming. I begin descending Snail Trail, and I’m passed by Todd who is just out cruising around. Anyone else what by? Sure, go ahead.

Another trip up the Escalator, and I’m down to one last bit of pickle juice. On the way down Terminator, I pass a guy with a flat. Moments later he passes me. Moments later I pass him because he has another flat. He is understandably upset, and while I am sympathetic, I only have one match and a gulp of pickle juice left and I ain’t sharing. Sorry dude.

I start up Owens, drain the pickle juice, pick my way down Enticer and voila, I’m done.

I was 4th in the Dinosaur Division. Jed was third in the mayhem division. Bill 14th in the division between mayhem and dinosaur. Isaac Pope (a.k.a. Van Der Pool) nabbed 3rd in his class. Solid.

Thanks, Owens! And a big shout to all the Lemurian organizers and volunteers – that was a great race which went off without a hitch.

Fishrock Race Report -Todd Dodds

Mike, Adam and I raced Fishrock once again however this year Mike and I decided against riding the tandem. 2019 Fishrock was still fresh in our minds as a very difficult, wet and cold day on the tandem. 2021 would turnout to be much different than 2019 in terms of the bike choice and weather.

We arrived to Boonville around 8:00 to pick up our race packets and we were welcomed to a 60 degree morning. Adam and I had not felt temperatures like that in awhile. Mike was his in element since Langlois does not go much over 60 degrees all the time. Of course, Mike reminded us of that many times during the 2 days we were with him. The temperature was going to change according to the weather report and the race organizer announcing that all must be aware of dehydration at the pre-race meeting. It was going to be HOT!! No problem for Adam and me. We live in Redding, come on, bring on the heat. Regardless, I had 3 bottles loaded with electrolyte replacement and plenty of food in the jersey pockets.

The race started promptly at 9:00 and the group of approximately 200 riders started off at a reasonable pace. I knew what was ahead so I made a move to get into the top 20 for the climb that was shortly approaching. As the group rolled people started going backwards pretty quickly once the road tilted upwards. I maintained a comfortable pace all the way to first aid station where I found myself in the top 15 or so. I saw Mike Castaldo just ahead of me at this point and he was fueling up on the road so I thought I would do the same. The two guys I was with on the climb attacked at the top of the hill and Castaldo got on their wheels which turned out to be a good move. I knew the descent and felt confident that I could bridge with those guys so I did not panic. As it turned out, I would never bridge to them on the descent which turned out to be okay. I descended as fast as I wanted to go and never had anyone bridge to me all the way to the bottom. Once I got on Highway 1 I rolled along for a few miles alone and was not pushing extremely hard trying to save matches for the Fishrock climb. Before the turn from Highway 1 toward Fishrock a group of about 6 caught up with me and I got on their wheels. As it turned out, the guy that was doing the bulk of the pulling would end up first in my category. He was crushing it! We started climbing the rollers heading toward the real climb and a few of the guys were going harder than I wanted to so I let them go. When I reached the aid station before the road turned to gravel I was able to drop a bottle and take a hand off for a fresh full bottle. No stopping meant saving time which was great. Once I hit the dirt and the road got steep I got into a tempo that felt pretty good. After awhile I started seeing some of the guys that had passed me earlier and one guy that attacked earlier with Castaldo not feel great on the climb. My climbing was great and I was happy to bridge and pass some of the guys that I had seen earlier in the day. Finally i got to the top of the Fishrock climb and grabbed a couple more bottles of water but did not have to stop completely. There was another guy at the aid station who was ahead of me and he was suffering from pushing so hard earlier in the day. I was in a pretty decent spot at this point. Anyway, the guy that I caught on the climb who attacked earlier in the race ended up riding with me on the descent. He is a mountain biker and a very good descender and we had a great time on the descent. Once we hit the pavement and turned toward Boonville, he was able to out power me on the flats. He ended up finishing about 1 minute ahead of me. When I reached the finish line I was of course happy to see it and I saw my finish time end at 4 hours 40 minutes. By the way, the temperature was over 100 degrees. Much hotter than in 2019 where I was so cold I couldn’t unbuckle my own helmet.

Results: my time was 4 hours 40 minutes, 4th in my category and 17th overall. I was slower by 7 minutes from my 2018 time which I think was caused by not having the power I had back then and not using tubeless tires which slowed me down on the descents. I used 25C tubed tires this year and I was riding pretty cautiously so I would not flat. Anyway, I was pretty pleased with my results.

Adam and Mike finished the race which is a big accomplishment. I saw Adam at the finish and I thought he may need an IV. He was dehydrated and white as a ghost. Mike was happy and chatty about the two woman he rode with almost the whole ride. Overall, we had a fantastic time and are grateful for the support of Owens. Thank you!!

The Owens Healthcare Cycling Team is a Proud Sponsor of the Lemurian Classic.