Peter Tapscott,
20 time Nor Cal/Nevada District Champion,
Cat's Hill Criterium - 1991
Racing in the Cat's Hill
race in 1991 was one of the high points
of my year. I rode the Masters' race for
the Shaw's Garden City team facing the
then dominant Los Gatos squad starring
Guy Seymour, Ross Rowley, and Ned Orett.
Garden City, led by John Elgart and me,
was ready to battle the Los Gatos dominace
in Northern California Masters racing.
Los Gatos sent Ross, a gifted power rider,
off the front to make the rest of us chase
while Guy rested in the pack, ready to
unleash an unbeatable sprint at the end.
When Ross opened up a gap of a city block,
I thought his breakaway was too dangerous
to let go up the road, even this early
in the race. I jumped as hard as I could
to break clear of the peleton, and bridged
up solo to Ross. He apologized that he
was not the "guy" planned to
win this race by his team, but as long
as I was there, he might as well ride along.
Apparently the Los Gatos team thought better
of chasing their team mate's breakaway,
and before long we were taking equal pulls
and opening the gap on the pack thanks
to blocking from both our teams.
Conventional wisdom was that the powerful
Ross would ride away on the hill, so I
shadowed him up the hill every lap. For
the last couple of laps, it seemed to me
that Ross was tiring on the Cat's Hill,
so on the last lap I waited for Ross to
power away, but when that didn't happen,
I put every bit of strength into beating
him up the hill.
The race announcer yelled "Tapscott
just made a huge jump on the hill!" The
crowd noise was deafening, and I had all
the encouragement needed to maintain the
gap past the park. I started catching lapped
riders on the fast downhill, and looking
back, could not discern which one was Ross,
so I just pounded through the finish line
with no arms in the air but actually nearly
a block ahead of second place. The crowd
showed its appreciation on the victory
lap.
Quoting Karen Brems (Kurreck), the most
successful rider in the history of Cat's
Hill (and also World Champ, US Pro Champ,
US Olympian) "It is amazing how sprinters
turn into climbers on the last lap of the
race!" It probably helped that I had
dropped about 5 pounds in weight in anticipation
of the District Road Race the next week
at Fort Ord, but that is another story.
The LG master's team was nearly
unbeatable back them. John Elgart, now of
Alto Velo, and I knew the riders well. Besides
being great bike racers, they were all you
could ask for in an opponent: aggressive
in the race and open and friendly off the
bike.
The next week a break formed in the District
RR of Ross Rowley, Ned Orett of Los Gatos,
me, and Mark Miller (who quit working in
the break and was dropped on the wall, so
didn't factor into the end game). Ned, the
fastest climber in the district, and I ended
up passing the Pro-1-2 lead breakaway on
the climb to the finish!
Peter Tapscott
Webcor / Alto Velo
20 time Nor Cal/Nevada District Champion