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 !!!