Down but not OUT!

Yes, i did go down at Copperopolis on Saturday. Went down hard, very hard. At 47mph + can you hit the tarmac softly?

Was having a good race, made it over the climbs with the front group each time, until the last 3 miles. At that point, the race was OVER for everyone but the five guys up the road. I just wanted to get back to the car to head home and join the family for easter dinner and watch the kids hunt for eggs. As the chase group came to the last climb of the race. A rider attacks and I jump on his wheel and one more jumps in. The three of us head to the downhill. I decide to go to the back for the descent and give the other two room, as they were riding pretty hard and I felt 6th place was not going to be won by the first guy to the bottom. So, watching the two guys battle down the road, one right behind the other. The rider drafting lost control of his bike and down he goes. He slides down the middle of the road with his bike right next to him on the left. Now if we were going through a turn, no big deal for me. He would have just slid wide and i would have gone to the inside of the turn. But we were going 47mph straight ahead and even with the space I gave him, there was nowhere for me to go. I just pulled up on the bars and with my feet to try and bunny hop his bike. As I was halfway over his bike, it flipped up and hit the bottom bracket and rear wheel of mine. Which, pushed me over onto the front wheel and the next thing i was on, was my face. Thanks Giro for making such great helmets. Did a systems check and got back on the bike. Waiting for results to be posted to see where I finished.

So, i ended up with 7 stitches in the chin, 5 in the left forearm, your normal body full of road rash and everything hurts.

I would like to thank Dr. Eric Hanson of Sierra Pacific Orthopaedic & Spine Center for taking care of my needs with just a phone call notice. What a great sponsor!

-bosch

Sequoia Classic- Masters

The boys executed perfectly this weekend to lead Bosch out for yet another Sierra Pacific win. The win was not only Brian's third straight, but it gave him enough to claim this year's 99 series title.

The 99 series consisted of a combined points series from events held in Merced, Fresno, and Visalia over the last three weeks. I thought it was a nice feature added to this years early races.

Catch the action at ibnsports.com where they have included video of the entire race. Click on Archive, Sequoia Cycling Classic, then Masters 35+ 123.

Brian said coming around Steve Reaney for the win wasn't easy.

Photos courtesy of Peter Lanik

Tower Crit 35+

Thought I'd type a synopsis of this race....

The field was small, around 30 guys, with the Green Jersey in our midst, so we knew who we had to cover. The race started off easily enough, attacks as they were weren't dangerous.

After 15 mins or so of our 50 min race, Hernandez took off mid lap to get a prime, and I went after him. He got the prime, and then we had a big gap too. Brian, Eric, and the Green Jersey bridged up and we started to work. The gap got big, real big.

Eric attacked, I flatted. I got back in just in time to see Eric get caught, then soon after Brian put in a big attack, the GJ and Hernandez let him go, and Eric and I just sat on. Hernandez started to work pretty hard to pull him back, but the GJ was holding back on efforts. That led to Brian to start to pull away from us and eventually lap the field. Once there, Tim G and teammates picked up the pace of the pack.

Meanwhile Eric and I are watching the other two work. With two laps to go, I attack, Hernandez chases and catches. Then he counters and the GJ chases him down. Finally Eric attacks nicely with a half lap to go with me in front of the group. I let him go, and once he's clear for second place I power up before that last left hand turn, gradually picking up speed, then sprinting, barely holding off the GJ for third.

Tim G got second in pack sprint for 7th, Curtis got 10th.

Another nice lesson for me in teamwork, which is somewhat new to me. Thanks for a great race guys!

Tower Crit: Pro 1 (Sufferfest!)

This race was very small and had way to many fast guys! There was only about 35 guys, but there was a full Colavita squad plus many other pros. The race was fast right from the beginning and was constantly strung out. The first 15 minutes was nothing but attacks. Did my best to stay up front and even threw in an attack, but it didn't really do much because the pack was going so fast! Eventually 9 guys got a pretty good gap and the pack just shut down. I was already pretty much blown up, but I dug in and went for it anyway. The pack let me go and I got about half way pretty easily, I started to get tired and started to worry that I might not be able to get across, but then I saw a Colavita guy also coming. We worked together and caught on after a lap. About 10 seconds after a got to the back of the group I go into the hairpin and dump it! (Idiot) With nothing but a little bit of lost skin I go to the pit and get a free lap. I jump back into the group and it was pretty mellow for a bit. I did minimal work since there were 4 0r 5 Colavita, 2 Symmetrics, Blackgrove from Toyota, Holloway and Patrick Biggs. The attacks started about half way thru the race. This made it very difficult, after about 10 minutes it was just to hard to cover stuff and the group split. I end up in the last group with Briggs and 2 Colavita guys. The Colavita guys wouldn't work so me and Briggs did the best we could. We almost caught back on to the group, but then I see Blackgroves teammate drifting back from the pack and jumps into the group. He drilled it for about 2 laps and the gap doubled, he then pulled off and quit. I think Holloway was off the front so he was trying to bring him back. I thought this was against the rules but nobody did anything. We continued to ride a pretty good pace and at this point I was content with just getting home. One of the Colavita guys fell off or quit and I led it out for the other 2 guys and rolled in for 9th. I was pretty happy with the performance and I gotta thank Brian for closing alot of gaps in the beginning of the race for me. All around great weekend for the team!

Vince

Merco 35+ RR

I wanted the experience of doing the P/1 race in the crit the day before, and it was fun, but it really didn't help my form for the RR on Sunday. I was racing the day on stumps, is what it felt like.

There was a large group of riders from Specialized, MS, and to a lesser extent, EMC. Clover and Sierra as well. There was activity from the gun more or less, and I tried to cover most dangerous attacks. With a little under 1.5 laps to go (we did 3 laps total), Bennet and Hutchinson were 1-2 attacks and that looked to be trouble. Eventually Hutch got away with Bubba and McKinley and with only me trying to keep the pace up with five Specialized sitting on my wheel, they quickly built up 45 seconds on us.

With a lap to go, EMC threw everything into the chase, with me and one or two others helping. Eric was in there too. We got it down to 20 seconds with 5 to 10K to go. I assume that's why Hutch ditched Bubba and McKinley, but maybe he's just that hard. But with 5K to go the pace wasn't all that high, with no particular team driving the pack, allowing Hutch to keep his lead. It was a 4 second gap at the finish line.

Brian did another great job of muscling the final Kilo to get the field sprint, and 2nd overall.

Brian 7th today

In the p/1 today, real serious field, psuedo NRC, great result. The pic isn't too readable but it was Sutter Home first, Horner 2nd, BJM 3rd. That group of three lapped the field, the rest are in the field.

I got 2nd in the 35 race, out of a 10 man break. I didn't like the break cause there were three teams with 2 riders each. But it worked out pretty well. Hutchinson led out the last lap for Bennett and I was sitting third wheel. I blew the second to last turn which blew my chances for a win.

Pretty good day. 72 miles of fast crit racing and still another 72 miles tomorrow makes for a good workout.

The 2's was a bit of crash fest, and John was a little spooked for the last couple of laps.