A Note From Mark Caldwell:
'86, '87 Cat's Hill
LGBRC, I won your race in 1986
as a senior. I have since won the masters
races a number of times. In 1989 I won the
other great one-day classic of Northern California,
Nevada City. Both races are brutal. The community
of Los Gatos and the Cat's Hill organizers
have a right to take pride in the race and
its enduring quality. Any cyclist who has
raced or recreationally ridden this course
knows that to win is a feather in the cap
of even the great champions of our sport.
In 1987 my protégé Stefan
Speilman of the 7-11 team competed. He managed
to get a wheel caught in the infamous slot between
turns 2 and 3 just before the climb. He crashed
hard and took down his Olympian teammate Jeff
Bradley who spoke to Stefan after as if he had
done it on purpose. We can all laugh about it
now after 15 years. To say the course is technical
is an understatement. It is difficult to count
how many times I've seen someone's race ruined
by dropping their chain on the unforgiving "Cat's
Hill."
Cheers,
Mark Caldwell