Clarity marked the road race on Saturday. We took 8 aggies into that race. Alex, save him, crashed in the first lap. Riley, Ben, Danny, Ian, Anthony, Chris, and myself were left, a strong bunch. We launched attacks, each of us, each being pulled back, but more slowly each time. Eventually Danny and Ben got away with three other guys. We ran some interference, stopped attacking to support our break group.

As they got out of sight, Chris jumped on an attack, I jumped when I saw them off the front and kept anyone from joining me. Chris and I were in a break with two Stanford(?) riders. After sitting in for a moment, with Stanford pulling, I decided to attack. Chris was third wheel and followed me, along with the second wheel Stanford, and we peeled the second Stanford rider away, a successful move. After another half lap, a small chase group including a couple SB and CPSLO guys were hanging in with us. I couldn't see the pack at this point. We were off the front, but I quickly found no one was working. Frustrated, I should have pulled off, dropped back with Chris and planned to attack and separate. We were one lap from the finish and would have been better off as a pair. Instead, I sat up with everyone else, waiting for the pack to catch us. It was a wasted gap.

Danny and Ben stayed away, and we came in as a pack sprint. I heard a Cal rider labeling Riley and me as trouble for our attacks earlier. CPSLO, out in force, got what they'd wanted, a mass sprint with a lot of their guys. They'd been sitting up the entire race, just doing enough work to control breaks. The sprint finish was a mockery of the centerline rule, ten feet wide with a charging field, several guys getting DQ'd. We got 4 guys in the top 15 (5 if not for 1 DQ) and rode like a team. It felt good.

Sunday's criterium was another type of race, tough from the start, with most of the field being pulled eventually. I had a different perspective of it from having crashed early, 5 laps in I slipped through turn one and buried myself into the curb (taking a CPSLO rider with me). I got up with all sorts of adrenaline and started sprinting up the hill as soon as the marshal would let me. I spent most of the rest of the race trying to bridge up to a group ahead with Riley and Alex. Alex made like superman after turn 5, onto the front staightaway, bravely blowing through another kit. I grunted through to finish, but in no good form, my hip having stiffened and swollen lovely. I found my rear wheel spilling in a number of turns, I'm convinced I was riding with too much pressure (120PSI/160lb rider) for the handling I sought.

Most of the turns were technical but manageable. Turn one was wide to narrow with plenty of extra momentum to burn off to make the angle, the site of many crashes including my own. Turn two was near the top of the climb, easy. Turn three was great, directly following the backstretch, you could carry as much momentum you wanted to, leading into a wide stretch before turn four. Turn four was super wide like turn five, each in the down hill section.

Dan