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Posted by Paul on Monday, June 23, 2003 at 9:42 AM

Monta Vista Velo Crit - June 22, 2003


Description:

Flat wide open, 0.7 mile, 4 corner crit. Ain't no thang. The weather was nice. The field was pretty small - about 50 I think - barely enough for upgrade points.

How it went down:

My goal was to stay near the front and try to latch on to a breakaway and test my fitness. Rob and Demian were racing as well - we talked and decided to not really have a plan. So, my other goal was to use this as an intensity ride.

Basically, I spent a lot of time at the front. I chased down some efforts. Then looked back to find the rest of the field just sitting there letting me pull at 26, 24, 22, 20 mph before someone else would attack again. Then I would move to the front and chase it down.

Somewhere around halfway, Pat Caurant attacked pretty hard and had a Solano guy on his wheel. Pat's a strong rider and Solano was well represented so it would have been a good move to follow. So I tried to jump on. I opened up a pretty good gap and chased for about 1/2 a lap, but just didn't have the horses. A few laps later, some more guys made an effort to bridge up to them and I was with them this time. But by the time we caught the Pat's duo, the whole group was with us. Then Pat took off again. This was right around the 5 laps to go announcement. Pat was off alone now and had a decent gap on the field. As things heated up, I got swarmed, Demian and Rob moved up to a good position in front. I was trying desperately to get up to them - I still felt I had good legs for a leadout train.

But it got a little fast and guys were taking silly chances all over the place trying to get position. Despite my efforts - it wasn't gonna happen. We apparently caught Pat with one lap to go - damn that dude is strong. I rode in with the pack. Blah.

I think Rob may have gotten top 15 or so and Demian and I finished pretty close. Oh well.


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