As Jack said be…

Race report from Cal Aggie from our very own John Fairbanks

As Jack said below, we rode a solidly tactical race, always with numbers near the front, allowing one or two of us to make a move or follow a good attack, countering if a move came back and, judging from comments after the race, we were looking for the right combination of teams to join with up the road.

Eventually, the pack split more than break was formed. There’s always a fog of war element to reporting who did what during a race when the one reporting was part of the action, but I’ll try.

Jason Snovel was the first one representing us up the road in the group that would eventually form the split. I was next to join and it looked to me like Schomer (sp?) with Specialized and Brian Choi with Fuzio were doing most of the driving to make this move stick, but others were working too. Snovel took a dig on the homestretch that felt like he upped the pace enough to snap ourselves away from the pack. I pulled through only once, not really caring if this stuck or not. A lap or two later, I look around and this split is 10 to 14 guys and we’ve got three: Dan Bryant, Jason Boyton and me.

Fast forward to the last two laps. Dan Bryant hits it on the backstretch, but there were still enough fresh legs to keep him from getting a gap. The pace stays fairly fast though for most of the rest of the lap. We got to start/finish for the bell and now I’m not really looking at what guys are doing up front so much as who’s wheel am I on. However, I looked up once when we were going fast and it was Jason Boyton on the front. About 350 meters to go I’m 6th or 7th and Richard Steel with Lange Twins opens his sprint from 3rd or 4th position. The Clif Bar guy who wins is on Steel’s wheel and I’m one wheel away from Clif Bar. I get to Clif Bar and mistakenly sit on him for a beat or two. I’m thinking its a headwind sprint and The Davis Kids moved the line about 50 to 75 meters towards Sutterville road, making the sprint longer than it has been in the past. I didn’t want to go too early. Well, in my caution, I was second to cross the finish line.

Despite missing the win by half a wheel, we did ride well in my opinion. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.