Bryan Enderle won Masters 50+ Cat 3/4 in the Berkeley Hills Road Race on Saturday, April 26, 2025. Here is his report from the race.
Berkeley Hills Road Race, by Bryan Enderle
Going into this race, I had 15 points and needed 5 more points for an upgrade to Cat 3, which was my goal to join Graham, Aaron, and others in their races. In order to do so I needed a 2nd place or better with a field of 11 or more. At first I thought I would need to do another 35+ 3/4 which had a stacked field of good riders. Fortunately the 50+ 3/4 filled up to 13 people. I had two people marked based on what I found online: Jay (Cat 3, green kit, Sac Golden Wheelmen, won a bunch of recent races) and Rich (Cat 4, black kit, Lamorinda, won a bunch of recent races).
It was pretty cold and cloudy that morning, and I decided to only wear my kit. I was nearly shivering waiting in staging and then during the 2+ mile neutral ride to the start line. I counted 13 in the field and found my marks: Jay and Rich. We were slated to do 2.8 laps with the finish line at the top of Papa Bear (second major climb near the end of the loop).
I heard that the first half of the ride was rolling hills (San Pablo), and it was hard to get away. I also heard that most people who got away did it on Mama Bear (first climb) or around Papa Bear (second major climb and finish line). I wasn’t quite sure what to do because I needed to beat either Jay or Rich to Cat up. I decided to stay with the group for the whole first lap unless I saw a major move go.
The group stayed together for the first several miles on San Pablo. We were going embarrassingly slow, sometimes less than 20 mph. Occasionally, people from other races passed us, but I didn’t think I had a chance for a breakaway. At one point, one rider in our group broke away and stayed about 10 seconds in front of us. I wanted to follow, but I didn’t think he had the strength to make it. A few minutes later, Jay (green kit) followed and that looked dangerous to me, so I welded it back together. After that, we stayed together all the way through Mama Bear. As we passed Mama Bear on lab 1, I scoped out a spot where I would launch a breakaway during lap 2 (about ½ mile before the start of Mama Bear at a cemetery).
When we reached the base of Papa Bear on lap 1, Jay (green kit) dropped his chain. I immediately thought that this would be the ideal time to launch an attack. Best case: Jay wouldn’t catch us again. Worst case: Jay would catch back on but be so tired he wouldn’t be a threat anymore. I launched at a 9/10 effort up Papa Bear and didn’t look back. Finally, when I neared the top I saw that only Rich (black kit) was left. He yelled up to me, “I’m still here”, and we agreed to make a go of it. I didn’t see Jay (green kit) again until after the race where he told me that he wasn’t able to catch the group again.
We went pretty fast down the descent, but it didn’t seem like we were going fast enough. We got back onto San Pablo and started lap 2. We did a good job trading pulls, but it still didn’t seem fast enough. Sure enough, a group of 3 caught us pretty quickly: Adam (Alto Velo kit) and 2 others. Ugh! I was happy that at least it wasn’t that many people. We did a decent job taking pulls and rotating, but it still didn’t feel that fast.
After we got off San Pablo we got swarmed by at least two other large groups. It was pretty chaotic because I couldn’t tell where everyone went. And then I saw that several others in our field caught us. Now, we were back up to 10 in our field. Ugh, again! All the groups stayed together for about a mile because no group was really going that fast. I couldn’t decide if I should attack because of all the confusion, or should I hang back? I decided to wait until the cemetery before Mama Bear. Eventually, the other groups went ahead, and it was just the 10 of us from our field.
When we got to the cemetery before Mama Bear, I launched at about a 7.5/10 effort. As I looked back, I could see that the group was splintering and that Rich (black kit) was a little behind me. I eased up a little so we could do the rollers together between Mama and Papa Bear. Even though he was my biggest competition, I thought we would be faster together. Rich also told me he needed 2 points to go to Cat 3. Between that and having to slow down on Papa Bear for him, I was pretty sure I could take him at the end. This time we did a much better job at the descent and took stronger pulls on San Pablo (start of lap 3).
After we turned off San Pablo, we started seeing glimpses of a chase group of 3. It was the same group of 3 from before: Adam of Alto Velo and 2 others. Adam finally caught us and said we had a gap. We started rotating, but it didn’t matter. The other 2 quickly caught us, and we were back up to a group of 5. Ugh again! Why can’t we drop these people?
I didn’t have Adam marked initially, but he was looking really strong. I couldn’t tell if he was sagging the climbs purposefully on the first 2 laps knowing that he would ultimately catch me. Anyway, once we were a group of 5, I stopped rotating, and we were going pretty slow again. I wasn’t concerned about the other 2 guys because they were talking about how hard the hill was on the first lab and were asking me about how hard I was going to make it. On the other hand, I had Adam (Alto Velo) and Rich (black kit) to worry about.
Adam was sitting in the front for the last mile or so before Mama Bear. Later he told me he was watching to see when I would attack. Because it worked before, I did my final launch at the cemetery again at 9 or 9.5/10 effort. I wanted to save a bit for the rollers and Papa Bear so I didn’t go all out. At the same time, I wanted to go hard enough so that no one could stay on my wheel. Adam tried to stay on my wheel, but I got him to a 5-10 second gap. At the top of Mama Bear I pushed really hard to drop him and stayed 10+ seconds ahead. There was a follow car with some juniors up the road. I went pretty hard to catch and pass them at a clear spot in the road, and luckily it was a little harder for Adam to get around them. I brought it down to a 6-7/10 on Papa Bear and kept some in the tank in case they came charging. I kept looking back but didn’t see them again. I crossed the line first for 7 points. Rich (black kit) ended up passing Adam (Alto Velo) and came across about a minute or more behind me. Rich later told me he was completely spent.
Anyway, I’ve requested my upgrade to Cat 3 and am ready to join some of the team members in races. I hope we get some team podiums, and I’m also prepared to get humbled by the Cat 1/2/3 folks.