Treasure Valley Cycling Club

Felt pretty good today starting out even though it was roasting hot (still cooler than Twilight though). Ready to make something happen! Matt was fired up too and told me to feel free to get into a break and he'd do what he could to keep things under control back in the field. (Big reason this topic came up is the exact thing happen last year. I got into a break which blew up and came back. Matt got into the next break which survived while I stayed back blocking). Matt took a flyer off the front for a $25 prime not long after the start and ended up losing it by a few inches at the line. DOH. So Matt was way out front and the comments in the pack were "let him dangle! keep him out there alone! just let him fry, don't chase!" That only lasted for a couple laps as Matt knew they were taunting him and had let up anyway. On his return a few attempts finally went, but people were on them quick. With 30mins to go, a Bob's guy (Josh) jumped alone in a lull and I pounced after him. The two of us worked up front for a couple laps, but I was getting tired really quick and wondering how this was going to work. We were soon joined by a 3rd guy from Utah. This Ute (Cam) was strong and he drove the pace hard. We traded pulls but I was riding a fine line between popping and surviving and couldn't hold my rotation every time. We were almost pulled back to the group at one point... so much so that the pack let off the gas... but we kept going and managed to pull right back away again. In the mean time, back in the pack, Matt was playing ultimate teammate! He was chasing EVERY move that attempted to get up the road to us. He'd chase things down and then block like mad by riding some false tempo up front... screwing up the catch attempt. YEAH! With about 10 mins to go, Brad Turpen bridged up to us and drug another guy in his wake. The 5th guy didn't last long though, and fell off almost immediately. Brad was yelling from the rear "go, go, go... drill it Josh", etc. He knew we could make this thing last if we pushed it hard and could tell we were all fading a bit. Brad and Cam were by far the strongest of the 4 of us and could easily take pulls twice as long but often wouldn't. I pulled when I could, but was still skipping them here and there just to stay attached. Finally it was down to the final lap and we still had a huge gap! I came up in the rotation right as we cross with one to go and gave it a half-effort attempting to conserve at least something. Josh came around me and was on the front in the back stretch when Brad & Cam jumped us. I blasted by Josh and tried to hitch on but couldn't quite get there. As I came out of the final corners I was just giving it everything but Josh was closing in on me. I pushed again hard out of the final corner but just couldn't hold it any longer and was fading quickly. Josh came around me right before the line and I coasted across in 4th spot. Since Cam was from Utah, this gave me the bronze medal for the state crit title though! It was a HARD effort... and, just like yesterday, I lost my belly contents into the grass off the side of the finish. :) Great race!! Thanks again to Matt for blocking and chasing back in the pack. I'll bet he could've bridged up to us, but it also may have been the carrot that the field needed to chase harder too. Fun race.