Pleasanton 35+

Tim and I were being brats at the start of the 35+ race on Saturday, at the re-crowned EBC Crit. We clearly announced to anyone who cared to listen the team's stategy for the race. Tim and I would attack over and over, and if the field cared to pull it all back together for the finish we would unleash Brian on them.

The plan was executed as announced. A number of breaks went and came back, and we were in each one, as far as I remember. At one point Brian went to the front of the pack and wound the pace up so high that the pack was starting to splinter. There were a number of gaps opening up, then I was able to attack off the front of that to create a short lived break.

Ex TO teammate Sean Smith was doing lots of work at the front. It was good cause he would also wind it up, and I attacked and took three with me to create a break. The members moved around a few times but we ended up with Rich from VOS, Chris from Lombardi, and most importantly, Dirk Copeland ex olympian track stud.

I spent the 20 minutes or whatever it was, thinking about how I could finally finish ahead of this guy with great timing, and better jump. One thought was that I could sit in with two or three laps to go and say I didn't need to work since Bosch was back in the field and he could win the pack sprint. That plan was not to work out, since Brian was spotted spectating with three laps to go! So back to my attack. I jumped wide last lap between turn three and four. Dirk didn't bother trying to get on my wheel, he just jumped inside, got a gap and held it to the finish. Class act that he is, he divied up the primes with the guys in the break (he had won all three primes as well as the race).

I got Jessica Layman to believe that they were picking olympians separately and that I had won my division. She quickly figured me out however.