Reports by:

• Del
• Keith Jordan
• Tim

Category: 4
Result: DNF
Teammates: Wendy,Tim,Keith

I can pretty much sum up my race with "a dollar a mile".

I was kinda bummed with the guys talking about tactics and not including me but I understood. I mean, I was racing the 4's for the first time with not only some of the fastest guys on the team but I think in the 4's. I hadn't raced since the Fremont Crit and my "training" since then consisted of 2 rides a week, and they weren't intense at all. I wasn't expecting too much out of it, but I did expect to finish.

1st lap went well, I was top 20 but slowly drifted back to keep Tim company. My new friend Mateo from CS was also around and we shared jokes the majority of the lap. I moved around a bit, as the efforts picked up in short stints, I was feeling it back there but it wasn't at all hard to get back into it, just more effort.

About 2-3 miles out from the start/finish, I saw Wendy say something to Keith and they were off. I looked at Tim and said "there goes Wendy and Keith". So we jumped. At that very moment, I was thinking hey, this is going to take considerable effort on my part and at the same time was thinking about the picture with Wendy off the front and Tim still stuck in the pack. I also thought about Richard's comments so I figured I was going to go at least try something to contribute to their breakaway. I jumped on Tim's wheel and we went ballistic. It felt like we were in the carpool lane and everyone else was stuck in traffic. No sooner did we get to the front when Tim eased off. We were quickly swarmed on both sides which is what I wanted, hoping to be a rolling roadblock but it didn't quite pan out as the peloton closed the gap and got around us quickly. Tim pulled off to the left and I followed. I was waiting for my opportunity to get to the back to recover. Man, I had no idea there were so many guys we had passed. I must of looked over my shoulder 5-6 times waiting for the last guy and I then tried to settle in. Bad mistake, I waited too long and several gaps had formed between single riders making my recovery all that much harder. I wasn't able to hold on.

Time trial. Man was it lonely out there. No birds or bees, no critters to keep me company. Only the wind and dark clouds. The only good thing is that I wasn't caught by the Juniors or Women although after talking it over with the guys, riding with the women would have been such a bad thing after all.

I rolled in after completing my second lap. 37 miles total.

I was glad I tried to help out, my only regret is not getting in sooner so I could recover and help out in the race. It seems my effort was in vain since they almost immediately got caught. Hey, Wendy got 8th and Keith got 9th or 10th. I like to think I had even a little bit to do with it, but I at least tried and took one for the team even if it was early on.

I still had fun though. Good conversations when I wasn't sleeping in the back. Dirty Sanchez, seatbelts, tickets and talking about but not eating good food.

Also, Keith's handy dandy state-of-the-art GPS computer thingy with real-time tracking was of absolutely no help. Keith was only able to confirm what we already knew (sorry Keith). He's like, "yup, you guys missed the turn". Classic. :)

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Category: 4
Result: 10
Teammates: Del,Wendy,Tim

So pre-race myself and Tim had a brief conversation about what our goals were in this race. He mentioned owing Wendy some work from a previous race and with a cold that just doesn't want to go away (still wheezing as I type this) I agreed to work for Wendy if the opportunity presented itself. Morning of the race brought grey skies and the occasional light shower. With no more than 3 hours of sleep we all seemed to be in fine spirits (heavy sarcasm) after we all got registered and ready to go we had about 20min to loosen up and lighten up. My mood lifted as cyclist came and went; it seemed like a reunion of sorts after a full season of racing seeing the same faces. Lined up and waited for a bit - OFF WE WENT

1st LAP as slow and easy I bounced around mid pack while my legs warmed up and kind of watched the race trying to out think the possibilities (couldn't be as hard as counting cards right?). Wendy found me in the pack and we hung out for a bit before Wendy decided the pace was crap and asked if I wanted to speed it up a bit...grabbed his wheel and followed him to the front of the pack. Instantly we drove the pace a good 5mph - we exchanged pulls a few times and had the group nice and strung out. We both then drifted off and let others control the pace. 2nd LAP I drifted back out of the wind and ended up mid pack or so, the jumpstart had worked as now we were cruising at a respectable pace. Went through some rollers and I was working to stay in the mix. Up front I could see Wendy working his way off the front with a couple of other guys, with my position all I could do is watch. There was a feed zone so I chucked my one bottle thinking I could recoup. The lady I zeroed in on just happened to be a mom of a racer or something was out there only to help a single racer...cursing under my breath as she gave me a deer in headlights look as my hand spasmed closed...empty (one of those I can laugh now moments) We get through the rollers and are back on the flat stuff, the pace eased up - I noticed Tim at front pulling the group. Little light went off so I peeled off and drove to the front of the pack with Tim to see if he needed any help. He asked me if I knew who was up front and I nodded and took to the front of the pack to pull...easily. This went on for what seemed like forever with me soft-pedaling at the front of the pack. I was amazed we were getting away with this as I watched the small breakaway with one of our guys shrinking in the distance. Didn't get away with it forever though tee hee Tim and I caught a little verbal abuse for controlling the pace. At this point I thought the break was long gone as we had lost sight them (would find out after the Race the one other guy with Wendy wouldn't work) The gig was up and one guy put out a very respectable effort and pulled the group back up to the breakaway. Rolled up to Wendy to see how he was doing.

3rd and FINAL LAP
Sitting top 10 I slowly got pushed back to 20th or so position. We were coming up to the rollers so I started to work my way back to the front. Got back up to the front 10 or so and notice 3 things. 1 -a good size group of guys were trying to break away from the group - I'd say 8-10 cyclists. 2 - Wendy was boxed in fairly well on the far right. 3- Someone was blocking because it felt like we were stuck in a time warp and these guys were making a hasty getaway. Boom - Wendy makes his move and I'm on it like white on rice. We jump out to the left and sprint away from the group. I sneak a peak behind us and it's a clean get away, WE HAVE GAP ladies and gentlemen. After a good effort into the wind Wendy starts to slow - we made it about half way to the breakaway, I shoot pass him and tell him to grab my wheel. Bury my nose and start burning matches. In what seemed like an eternity of effort we latched onto the back of the breakaway!! But now my legs were shot and we were in the rollers. These guys were moving and I was hurting, tried to hold on only to pogo off the back of the group for a bit before letting go. A second breakaway group caught up to me so I jumped in with them. They were motivated and attempted to push the group to catch the breakaway. As you can guess since I just buried my legs getting a team-mate up to that same group and was less then responsive to the coaching. I watched the main group behind us for a while but they never really gained on us and after a while actually disappeared entirely. Nearing the end of the race our group had shed a few members as the paced picked up. At 1K to go I gave a good effort in my saddle carrying one guy (9th place I imagine) to the finish. Was easily the most fun all year... sadly the last race of the season but at least it ended on a good note. Twas a pleasure racing with you gents

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Category: 4
Result: Finish
Teammates: Del,Wendy,Keith

Keith, Wendy, Del, and I drove up to Chico. Since we picked Wendy up from his home in San Pablo, google maps told us to take a round-a- bout way to Chico. Let's put it this way, we were on a 2-lane road with orchards on both sides of the road for miles on end. Eventually we came to a stop sign with a church on the corner which had a small sign stuck the ground (with hand-painted words "Chico ->"). It definitely felt like a treasure hunt at 11pm. Well, somewhere we missed a turn (probably due to no street lights) and ended up in the foothills near Butte College. We eventually made it to our hotel around 12:30am after about 4.5 hours on the road.

(insert sleep for 5 hours)
Saturday Road Race:
We woke up at the bright and early time of 5:50am to threatening rain clouds and made the hour drive to Corning. Like KJ said I was super pleasant to be around, not at all pissed about being there. ;)

I'll put my spin on what happened at the RR.

1st lap:
I stayed at the back for the first 9/10ths of the lap; when I saw KJ and Wendy move up to the front, I scrambled up as well because I thought they were trying to break away. I inserted myself about 2--3 riders behind them. Del had followed me up to the front and was on my wheel as well. I kept trying to let gaps form in front of me, but nobody was having any of it and we was swarmed immediately. No breakaway.

2nd lap:
I saw Wendy going off the front during the rollers, and went to the front to block. I kept trying to take 2--4th wheel and when it was my turn to pull, I'd let off the gas slightly. I kept this up for 5--10 minutes. Then Keith joined me and probably pulled for another 5 minutes. Eventually the Chico guys started to get pretty anxious and would pull through. Keith and I kept disturbing their efforts because as soon as it was our turn again, we'd let off the gas. Needless to say, we took a little verbal abuse (I was only to ready to dish it back :) ). Finally, one Chico guy drilled it and brought the break back himself in the final KM of the second lap.

3rd lap:
A mile or two before rollers, I saw Keith and Wendy going off the front. I tried to work my way to the front, but I was too far back and the pack was already chasing hard. By the time I got to the front, we were in the middle of the hills and I was blowing up. I drifted back and was caught behind a crash. Then my hub started to make some noise like my front wheel was going to explode. So that was an excuse to stop and check my bike. I never found the problem (still a little worried about using my Mavics again). I did the next 5 miles by myself and probably rolled in last place.

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