Monday, February 18, 2008

Dinuba Elite Race

First, I would like to thank the men in blue for thier efforts today in the 1/2 race.

Three hours after racing the masters race, we pinned up for the elite race. With 30min to go before the start, many of us were a little on the filp-side for the elite race. Words like "my legs feel like @#$%", "Ah man, this race is over twice as long as the masters!" and "Vinny, you and Joel cover everything in the beginning we'll be hangin' out in the back." could be heard.

The whistle blew and we're off. I clicked in and sprint for the first turn. Come out of it third and a guy is driving it at the front. The first lap down and the next guy keeps it going. I looked back in the second corner and see a gap. We had six guys in the group and one is Eric E. This looked good for us, so I go to the front and kicked it up a bit. Our group of six worked well for a few laps, with help from Aaron (BPG) and Jon (VOS). We got a big gap fast, as the rest of the field just sat up. I had a chat with the Cal Gaint rider, to get him to do something but he was happy with sitting in and that must have been contagious because now nobody wanted to work with Eric and I. Because this was a great move for us, I stayed at the front for at least the next 6 laps. I didn't want anyone from the pack to bridge up to us and change our odds.

About half way into the race we could see what was left of the field ahead. I went for a prime and tried to jump across to the pack. The team saw me coming and kicked into overdrive. Good move guys. But it didn't work and all six in the breakaway were still together. Tim, Coby and Vinny stayed at the front the rest of the race and kept Eric and I safe from all attacks. Joel went off the front solo with 20+ laps to go and as he put it "That was the hardest 7th place I've ever raced for."

The last few laps saw a couple attacks from Jon (VOS) and one last try to deny us a victory came from the Cal Giant duo on the last lap. Coby and Vinny covered them and gave me a fast wheel to come out of the final turn with nothing but the finishline ahead.

Sierra Pacific gets the win and to make it even better, Eric the "pocket rocket" got second!
1-2 NICE!

Thanks guys!

2 comments:

Peter said...

Congrats on another well earned win.

Pics from your morning's race (35+ 1/2/3) are here:

http://peterlanik.smugmug.com

Peter

Britter said...

Peter,
Thanks for the link to the photo's always nice to see pictures of the days races!
-mb