Mike Pugh, Golden State Crit 35+3/4

We got lucky and the rain of Saturday am was long gone by 4:30pm. It was cool with a slight breeze out of the North when Fred, Chris B, Brian K and I got together to talk about the course and some strategy. The promoter had taken the 180 degree turn out of our race after some accidents in previous races resulting from the pavement on the left hander going into the 180. Our course was simple 4 corners, wide open with some broken pavement. The finish straight had a slight curve to the left out of the right hand corner. Relatively short sprint from the corner about 250 meters. Another DBC rider showed right before the start and introduced himself, really nice guy, but I forgot his name when to gun went off.

Prerace: I told the other 3 that I planned to sit the first half of the race whether a break went or not, however if any of them found them selves in a break I would go to the front and do what was needed to keep them off the front. Chris, Fred and I agreed that it was a sprint to the last corner with a relatively short run to the finish from the corner. We had an end game plan to be a train of 3 getting to that corner.

Team work: I could not have raced if Jason E had not showed up and graciously offered to hang with my nine year old daughter, Nicole-thanks again Jason.

Should I stay or should I go: About half way through the timed race (imagine looking at your watch to see how far along you are, first time I've done that) a small group of mixed riders was off the front about 4-5 seconds as a result of a couple of back to back primes. Prior to this I sat and worked very little watching attack after short lived attack reeled in by the pack. I decided to bridge as they looked as though they were working together. One lap later I was with 5 others. I won't go into details of the group but we in my opinion were crawling along with just enough smash to stay away from the field. I think at one point someone said we had a 14 second lead. That lead would dwindle to 8 seconds a short time later.

The kid: With 3 or 4 laps to go going into the first corner after the finish line a small (3-4 year old) boy ran in front of the break. He luckily was not hit and no one went down but the continuity of the six man break was shattered into two groups of 3. the first and fortunate 3 stayed off the front for the rest of the race. The later did not. Very unfortunate incident for those later three. More on this incident on the NCNCA blog.

Last couple of laps: After the initial shock of the incident, the lead group of 3 (myself, Mike from Auburn, and another guy who I can't remember) put our heads down. I told these two that we could do this and to not worry about the sprint. I figured that Fred, Chris and Brian were still working at the front of the pack even though the group was starting to posture on the last lap. I knew we had to work hard to pull this off.

The sprint: I timed my pulls and was second going into the final turn, I came off the lead riders wheel right after the corner as he jumped, normally in a longer sprint I would have sat on his wheel for a couple of seconds while he wound it up, not on this short finishing straight. I got about half a bike length ahead and held it to the line. Second place (Mike from Auburn) gave a good effort the last 50 meters so I had to throw my bike. I was very lucky that neither of my two partners were strong sprinters.

Teamwork-the break would not have stayed away without Fred, Brian, and Chris slowing down the pack. We were just "maintaining" off the front without very little real urgency as was evident by the fact that the lead went from 14 seconds to 8.

It was good to race with the guys and it was a fun race. I would recommend doing it again next year and hope for better course marshals. : )

Mike