Sunday: I sleep in until I can't sleep anymore. I asked
Groove Talking if we were going on a ride, she opted out since she did two hours in the heat on Saturday. Hmm...what time does the race start? 10:30!, Damn, it's 8:15!
No time for breakfast! I swapped the wheels out to the carbons while gnawing on a Cliff bar, mix up my Infinit bottles and jump in the truck by 9:00.
I arrived at the venue with an hour to spare and they were running behind. I enjoyed watching, and yelling encouragements at the 4/5 squad while I prepared for my race.
The words of the day were MOVE UP and WORK TOGETHER!
Just before we start I see
Lothar and Reed from Safeway who are also doing the 3s. I told them I would work really hard in a break if they are interested in getting something rolling. I wasn't worried about the win, I wanted the Omnium points.
Round and round we went, a few riders tried futile moves, but the first 10 minutes of a 50 minute race was kind of early. I kept my nose out of the wind and waited for Safeway to make a move. Kyle jumped on the backside so I bridged, we rotated about 3 times but were caught. I got back in and stayed near the front waiting for the next volley. It came on a prime as a rider went for the sprint I saw the RH Villa kid ramp up for a counter. It looked solid so I went with, hoping Safeway was being attentive.
I think they might have had a little fatigue left from Coyote Creek, they did not respond.
This all happened about 20 minutes in, hmm...kind of early still. We held tempo for a few laps hoping for some fire power to come across. I lost count of how many laps went by, but at 30 minutes to go they rang a prime bell. I suggested to RH that we just ride and not worry about the prime. I was also thinking the prime would mean a pack swarm. That was OK as I was feeling good and thought I could handle a re-shuffle.
We came around the hairpin and we were still clear, I told RH lets just split it if we take it. He sort of silent and I thought he might sprint. Whatever. I drove steady to the line, not sprinting just hard breakaway pace. RH didn't contest and we were joined by a Squadra Ovest that just finished a failed snipe for then prime attempt. HA! NOT! Access denied.
We gave SO time to recover, but after a lap of sitting on I asked him to work. He took a few pulls, but they were a little slow so I only let him pull for a couple seconds.
With about 8 laps to go we were joined by another SO rider, Johnny come lately sounded the alarm bells in the pack and we were done. The announcer said 5 seconds, so I soft peddled the corners 1 and 2 to recover and prepare for the catch and jump on a counter. Nothing really shook the pack, and SO put a couple of guys on the front for the last two laps to keep it fast. This was a rare site and good to see. I wanted to attack again but they were doing a fancy job of keeping the pace high. This meant It was time to think about the sprint and practice holding a position. I did OK on the position thing, but that hairpin tend to re-shuffle things pretty efficiently. Managed 7th at the line.
With my 4th and the 7th, everyone was pretty sure that I had the Omnium. Hmm...something about counting eggs before the chickens hatch, or is that hatched eggs counting chickens...or something? Well...I don't know animals, but it's bad.
Turns out a Ken from Peggy who was second from last on Diablo had won the crit giving him a 2 point advantage and dropping me to second. SON OF A....
Well, that OK, my legs and motor felt great all weekend and with the prime and the 2nd in GC for the Ominium I have some nice prizes chew on.
Pegasus put on a great weekend of racing, I look forward to both of them next year.
