Mark Reynolds San Luis Rey Road Race

By George Chester

Mark Reynolds San Luis Rey, sitting on the start chatting with Hylton, Johnny Rocket and Bruce I glance back and think the class behind us must have crowded right in to our group, 19 60+ and 30 55+ racers.  Impressive turnout for our usually lightly attended road races.  Even more impressive would be how many of this group would be there in large bunches at the end of 44 miles, 2000’ of climbing in under 2 hours for an average speed of 23-24 mph.  We rolled out of the parking lot and drilled it down the fast and potentially dangerous descent being led by a large contingent from UC Cyclery.  Everyone is careful, as the screech and smell of burning pads on carbon wheels and the sight of “slice and dice” Armco waiting to catch the unfortunate sobers the field into a fast but safe descent.  UC drives us across the flat rollers at a consistent high pace, often lining out our group around the cone and back up the first climb at between a 14-15mph for a 1^st lap avg. speed of 24.5mph.  Somehow the entire group stays largely intact throughout this opening salvo, with most of us towards the back able to come back, on descent number 2.  Once more down the descent safely with gaps being closed and arriving for another quick, at times single file trip across the rolling flat section of the course.  I am sitting at the back entertaining frequent visitors from UC as they drop back to rest after taking their turn driving the pace up front.  A small group has slipped off the front, but I, like many, expect it will come to nothing with the strength of UC at the front and besides the Stars and Stripes; Mr. Fuller, is still with us.  Dale rolls to the back next to me after a lot of hard work up front and we exchange a few words in which he tells me that UC is “not” in the break and they are not making much progress in bringing it back so we can expect a nice brisk pace the second time up the climb.  Impressive, hats off to the guys in that break, Warren Wicks, Gary Shuey, Kim Bleth, Steve Cahill and Jean Viniot, (apologizes if I don’t have the early mix quite right).  Another quick run along the rolling valley, I suspect there is some beautiful scenery along the way, but I have yet to fully enjoy and take it all in and then we launch into the climb easily equaling and at the front increasing the previous accents pace.  This time the group is exploding and big gaps are opening all over the climb.  During this accent, Kenny Fuller and Michael Mueller from UC, make their move off the front and bridge up to the break leaving behind a main group of around a dozen with Bruce and Hylton followed closely by a second chase group of about 6 which I am in along with Johnny Rocket.  Johnny takes charge and gets us going driving the pace down the descent where we consolidate with the main group just before turning onto the valley floor.  Lap 2, 23 mph avg.  Now with the UC designate in the break, we take a break.  UC controls the front at what now seems like a leisurely pace following the fireworks of the previous 1hr 15min.  As we near the turnaround we see the break going the other way and know that it is Game and Set, with the final climb to determine the Match.  As we near the turn into the final climb to the finish the pace ramps back up until once on,  gaps begin to open everywhere and it becomes every man for himself.  When I looked at my download, one of the surprises was that we were climbing all the climbs at pretty much the same “Infernal” pace.  Dictionary translation of “Infernal” includes such words as “Hellish, Diabolical and Damnable”, seems accurate.  Sorry I don’t have the details of how it played out in the break, but I believe as with the following group of 18-20 even though gaps opened the players were all within sight of each other down to the final drive to the finish.  To me an amazing display of the depth of talent that we now have in the Masters 55 and 60 plus riders.  To start with 50 riders aged 55 to 83, (That’s not a mis-print, hats off to the Grand Master, Link Linquist for riding out this tough course), and still have a break and front chase group numbering 25 or so, is a testament to the quality of our masters field.  For me personally, it was great to ride in with a great guy, Johnny Rocket, (having a off day after winning Barrio and destroying his legs the previous week doing an impromptu hike a bike downhill for miles, but that’s a whole ‘nother story) and behind a great friend to both of us, Hylton Murphy, once more showing me his backside.  I’m surprised sometimes that I recognize Hylton from the front, as I very rarely get that view. J  Results below, but a brief summary of the podiums: 

Fifty Five Plus: Warren Wicks, 1^st  Michael Mueller-2^nd, Gary Shuey-3^rd.

Sixty Plus:  Kenny Fuller-1^st, (How’d he pull that off????? J), Jean Villiot-2^nd, (in the break, great ride) and Bruce Steele-3^rd, (Ole Steele Buns was kicking himself for missing the break, but watching him ride the front on the climbs was impressive). 

Good course, made great by the competition, “Thanks for the Memories”.

San Luis Rey RR  (Rank 2.0)
Masters 55+
Place	License	Name	Team	SoCal Points
1	202108	Warren Wicks	Swami's Cycling Club	28
2	46688	Michael Mueller	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	22
3	44197	Gary Shuey	Citrus Valley Velo	20
4	49191	Kim Bleth	Platinum Performance Cycling Team	18
5	204724	Steve Cahill	Moonlight Velo	16
6	59572	Mark Huffman	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	14
7	69952	Robert Willcox	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	12
8	61353	Reed Moore	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	10
9	54522	Kalman Szkalak	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	8
10	70853	Henry Schnepf	Team Velosport Club	6
11	49080	Eddie Morris	Amgen-UBS Elite Masters	4
12	126351	Steve Bernede	Unattached	2
13	55591	Mitchell Weinstock	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	0
14	259387	Bruce DePriester	Sho-air/Sonance	0
15	195618	Stephen Horine	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	0
16	202041	Mark Planellas	Southern California Velo	0
17	47262	Dale Luedtke	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	0
18	47255	Michael Birditt	Swami's Cycling Club	0
19	15625	Demi Hechanova	Southern California Velo	0
20	269972	Fred Haim	Herbalife LaGrange	0
21	46255	Alex Collins	Canyon Velo	0
22	23055	Reed Mayne	Swami's Cycling Club	0
23	49144	Todd Schooler	Alliance Cycling Team	0
24	95649	Ken Burns	Southern California Velo	0
25	50765	Richard Roberson	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	0
26	34753	Rick Swanson	Radsport Cycling Team	0
27	29477	James Reilly	BikePalace/BackOnTrack	0
28	313446	Trent MacLean	Herbalife LaGrange	0
29	273411	Paul Anderson	South Bay Wheelmen	0

San Luis Rey RR  (Rank 2.0)
Masters 60+
Place	License	Name	Team	SoCal Points
1	46765	Kenny Fuller	Cycles Veloce	28
2	59805	Jean Villiot	CA Pools/DeWalt	22
3	236498	Bruce Steele	South Bay Wheelmen	20
4	72995	Hylton Murphy	Sun Coast Velo	18
5	196820	George Chester	LIVESTRONG Army KC / Midwest Cancer Care	16
6	48760	John Rubcic	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	14
7	195498	Donald Kimper	ACQUA AL 2/SDBC	12
8	45047	Glenn Baldwin	SLO Nexus Cycling Club	10
9	51495	Gary DeVoss	San Diego Cyclo Vets	8
10	46904	Daniel Wulbert	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	6
11	246256	Daniel Crain	Paramount Racing	4
12	45763	Robert Paganini	Pasadena Athletic Assoc (PAA)	2
13	180386	John McKee	Paramount Racing	0
14	207024	Jacobo Melcer	San Diego Cyclo Vets	0
15		David Shechtman		0
16	46547	John Edwards	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	0
17	45342	Domenick Forte	Pasadena Athletic Assoc (PAA)	0