Pacific State Bank GP

OK this up in reverse order from BG:

Stockton is a fun course and one of my favorite races as the course is a little technical with some tight turns and a nice stretch for the sprint finish. The wind picked up a bit so I was looking for a break to go. The interesting thing though is that the P12 race stayed together and had that in mind. With no teammates, J Bee got the flu this week, had to use bullets wisely and follow threats only. We had a field of about 50 or so with a lot of the usual suspects missing and some of the guys worn down from the P12 (skipped that one). We did have Poulsen, Glerum & Ma (Bagboys), Bosch (CVC), Granshaw (MS), Gile (VOS), Juarez (ML), a Cal Giant guy, a few EMC, locals Max Mack and Steve McCaw and a smattering of others I never saw.

The first part of the race was uneventful with a couple minor attacks and nothing sticking. I hung out for about five laps then moved up and rode toward the front. Glerum clipped a pedal in turn 2 - he recovered nicely and things were jittery just for a bit. EMC finally threw down and Loogman went up the road solo for a long time. Juarez, who I’ve only read about on the blogs, went to bridge and Loogman wisely dropped to let him catch so they could work together. I just held position up front and did some work, but only took short pulls when others took much longer ones. Let the two guys kill themselves, no way we were letting them get past 10-15 seconds. Goal was to use the other teams and force them to do the work, however I did stay aggressive with keeping position. No mates can be real tough sometimes. I kept it at threshold only when I did pull through and did not use the big armor piercing hardware.

The gap stayed at 10-15 seconds for a long time with a few mini attacks. I pulled through a few times. I only responded when Poulsen went up the road or an attack or two from Gils. Brain fart was that I completely forgot about Bosch, who just stayed put and waited it out. Things were nice and strung out so I figured staying near the front was fine. The promoters called out double primes in that they would be back to back – death for the two man break. I kept my eye on Parks (EMC) cause I was about 100% sure he would counter when they were brought in. I just stayed near the front and tried to give the appearance of doing work (well it wasn’t exactly easy). Some Form Fitness guy attacked and went off for a few laps solo – ouch. With about 8 to go I went with Poulsen and a couple others that looked like it might be a good selection. We had a slight gap coming out of turn 1 and Poulsen hit it. I came around and asked if he had anything left. He said yeah a little so we traded a couple pulls and the others poofed and the break died. Well gave it the college try. We pulled in FF and then a few more attacks went. I stayed up front but forced the other teams to cover - only so many bullets

Granshaw (at least I think that’s who it was from MS) drilled it hard with two to go and we had a couple guys that could have stayed off, but no go again. Two to go has been my nemesis a couple times in the past. This time I told myself to find a way to WIN and told myself I felt good – I actually felt OK and the pace was high but manageable. Tim Creswell gave me some good advice an said first wheel around the corner might be best as we had a tail wind sprint. Poulsen led it from about 500 and I managed to get second wheel. He went a little wide out of the corner so I could not get my sprint rolling until after the apex (wanted to go earlier). He gave a great lead and I came around with maybe 30 to 50 meters to go thinking I may have it. Even gave a loud grunt and threw the bike back and forth –hard as I could. Unfortunately Bosch spoiled the party and screamed by on the right so I took 2^nd. That's the third 2nd place this year, so now I'm gettin' real hungry for a V !!!

Burlingame

Burlingame Crit

Masters 123

Teammates – Peter Allen & John Fairbanks

We embarked on a lil trip to the Peninsula. Peter was fired up for this one like a kid in a candy store. By the way he’s won the race several time, knows the course well and was able to give John and I the full run down. We were determined to ride aggressive and gun for a win. We got there early and Peter got us into the sweet stealth secret parking spot real close to reg – nice.

Had a full field of 100 and some major big guns. Safeway had a skeleton crew vs. the usual armada. AMD had a tough crew sans Nolan who’s apparently out with broken ribs from Nez. Started out and got kinda stuck behind some folks that could not find their pedals. John made it to the front and single handedly covered the first 1/3 of the race. I slowly moved up and got close cause he needed some help – it was fast, windy and just frickin hard to move up. Made yesterday look easy IMO. Finally found a nice wheel who pulled me up which was critical as there was a break of seven or so up the road, we were not in it and AMD had two (at least it looked like two). The timing worked out well. I went to front and pulled through the turns. It was strung out and a spine guy let a gap form behind me so I gassed it and tried to bridge. Gave a look under the arm and no one was following. Potential no mans land......Heard John yell GO! I was committed, gave it some more gas and buried myself. It took almost a full lap to catch and hurt – they were flying. The break had Joel Robertson, Andrew Barlow, Dirk Copeland (Cal Giant), Markus Roccareo, Brian Bosch , Max Mack, and Craig Roemer(AMD) (I think?) and Dean LaBerge (AMD) no Morgan, Safeway, Lombardi, Alto Velo or EMCs made it. AMD took hard pulls as did Bosch, and Copeland. We got to about 20 seconds on the pack at one point - at least thats what I heard from the sidelines. With 8 laps to go LaBerge mixed it up with one other (?) and crashed – just heard the crunching carbon. La Berge took a free lap and got back in. According to Peter and John they covered the front well with the other AMD guys (McKinley and Casey) and stayed in striking distance should the break die. Perfect execution and teamwork. The field got ancy and Gaver from Spiney took a two-lap pull and got it close according to J & P. With the field strung out John found an opportunity to attack and tried to bridge. Unfortunately, he did not make it. Bosch and Roemer absolutely drilled their pulls as did Copeland. I drilled it too, just not as long as the others with the Hernandez's golden rule in mind – “never, ever get dropped from the break.” Learned my lesson at Golden State with Dan Martin. Also wanted the break to be successful as that is so satisfying. The pack was within 5 seconds with 3 to go – not good at all. Bosch almost ripped everyone up with a monster pull – a few of us traded and LaBerge tucked back. Strategically thought about where and when to be in the rotation and with two to go drilled the corners from turn 1 to 3 and did my job to help cement the break figuring that was the best odds. Think we brought the gap up a bit but with a hard charging field. Now the tricky part – how do I win! Well I tried to set myself up behind LaBerge and he went with Copeland with about 400 to go. Thought about going early at 1K, however the wind would have sapped me, so I rolled the dice. Got squeezed a bit and had to go to the left with Bosch, which caused the death pause – gave it full throttle, err whatever gas I had left, and ended up 4^th. I’m stoked because the team rode great and we pulled in a top placing in a very tough race.

John placed 15^th in the P12, which had about 100. I almost puked after the first race and was just going to sit in. Well after 15 minutes or so I decided to actually get in the race and slowly picked off positions till I found myself at the front for some sponsor time. Was actually having a great race until 25 minutes to go or thereabouts when someone took me out in a corner. Got back in the race, but the legs were toast after stopping and kind of seized up. Another crash split a few of us and I was too tired to chase and called it a day. Kudos to John for finishing that one and getting us some lunch money.