EBC p1/2 Race

This was a fun and active race for all. We had John, Tim, Brian, and I to start. Too bad the field was much smaller than the earlier Master's race where we had scored 2nd to Copeland. We only had around 50-60 for this, maybe less.

BPG had nine guys and radios, looking to come out in force again. They won week before at Cat's Hill and were to be taken seriously. Only two CalGiant, but doesn't seem to matter how many guys they actually field, still dangerous.

There were a couple of early attacks before the most dangerous break of the day formed. It was me, Rapinski (BPG), Olympic, Lombardi, some others including John (ICCC) but he wasn't working. In fact, I felt a lack of commitment to the break in general, and I didn't get a good feeling from it. Things really started to come apart after John went for a prime after saying he couldn't work for three laps! That got Rapinski up and arms and attacked the group, further tiring and slowing the others. I took a strong pull to try to get things back but all the others complained. Then John took one last, hard pull and that dumped everyone but me and Rapinski!


Damn Rapinski can pull. We got a big gap but I was getting my legs ripped off, I'm the first to admit. Been a long time since I've gotten to the point where I could barely work. Here is a picture of me hiding behind him. Felt like a soviet tank had run me over by the time we were caught. In way of excuses I will say there was a small voice saying: 'why did you race every possible Friday Night Track event last night?'.

Anyway, it's back together until Justin Fraga launched his panda attack with our Tim, around eight to go? At some point Tim came back to us, but Justin was still out there. Not sure how John got up to him and the two exTO riders made a good effort, getting caught, then attacked by, Rapinski. Sounds like they could have worked together, but the russian wanted to go it alone. We chased some, me and CalGiant's Miller I saw.

We only managed to get him with less than a half lap to go, but then the speed wasn't fast as no team seemed to have ramped it up. Briggs and Bosch got to the front of the pack and Briggs was able to take advantage of the less-than-speedy finish, jumping first with two turns to go, getting enough of a gap to hold out for the win. Bosch second, Logan (BPG) third.

It was a good day for us. Would have been good to win!