Cat's Hill Criterium

Standing on the other side of the registration booth for a bicycle race was different in a way that I didn't expect.

January 1, San Bruno Hill Climb:
This is a real race. Is it really okay for me to enter a race? Look at all these serious racers.

May 2, Cat's Hill Criterium:
Look at all these serious racers. But anybody can enter - they pay their money and they take their chances. There is an element of swagger, a sense of tossing one's hat into the ring.

One dude saunters up to register 15 minutes before the start of the Men's Pro/1/2 race, still wearing his street clothes. Just decided he had the legs for it? Spotted Jackson Stewart (BMC) wearing number 1 and thought he might beat him? (He didn't. Jackson won.)

The registration table was well-situated behind the finish line and the stage, which faces the notorious Cat's Hill (Nicholson Avenue, 23% grade). The top of the hill was not visible from my vantage point; instead, that stretch of Nicholson looks like a cliff face.

The Pro/1/2 men are the last to race around the circuit. It's a fast bunch today, completing each lap in a little over two minutes. They stop 75 minutes after they start, which translates into 35 or so trips around the course, up that brutish hill. Before the race was over, at least 40% of the field had abandoned. Some of my racer friends tell me the hill isn't the worst of it; it's the pace after you reach the top that gets you, no time to slack off. A scant two minutes later, you're doing it again. And again.

Having fulfilled my registration duties, I watched the final race. This year I planted myself near the bottom of the hill, where I could see them fly around the corner toward me at high speed, hear the gears shifting, and watch them climb out of the saddle, rocking their bikes left-right, left-right. Wow, do they fly around that corner! They threw off a draft so powerful it made the tree branches sway. Helps to carry some momentum going up that hill.