Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Wente p1/2 Crit

After waiting around for almost an hour and a half for the ambulances to clear away, this race got started.

It was a full field of over 100 guys, big team of the day being BPG, with around 10. We had Tim G, Eric, John, Brian, and I. CalGiant had around 5. Other notables: Halloway, Roman, Switters (fresh off his solo Wente RR from day before). They cut the thing short too...

Getting away was going to be really hard: the couse was fast, and while there was some wind, it wasn't enough for escapes. There were certainly attempts: I was away twice, the second time being more promising with Ryan and Christian, but the EMC rider that came with us was having a hard time. Roman and some others got up to us and I managed to get on the back of that just in time to get caught by the pack with about four laps to go. I think I saw Eric in a break at one point too. I'm sure there were others but I don't recall now. There was lots of swarming at different points in time.

We did have one solo crash. Did anyone else see the Webcor dude fly into the curb at Turn 1.1 (that's the little left turn after the first right)?

So back to four laps to go: I'm caught in back and Tim does a great effort to get me and Eric right up to the front, and then he pulls a whole lap, with Brian somewhere in the top ten. I pull a half lap or so, but I'm not sure exactly where the other guys are, so not giving %100. Lombardi, then BPG take the reins in the last lap.

So this guy Victor Ripinski is apparently an ex-Pro who wants to race around here for a while. I guess he takes a huge pull before the last turn and just blows the whole thing up cause when I come around last turn in 10-15th spot, there is a huge gap opened up. He pulled Justin close to finish from what I gather but he has Hollaway, Bosch, and Roman on his wheel and they all come around him to finish in that order. Sounds like Eric had a part in it to, by sweeping Brian's wheel.

John got 8th but not sure which side of the gap(s) he was on. Strange race... chime in with more details if you have them....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What was Hollaway doing at the line? Taking a drink while he won the sprint?