It's been a few weeks since I have updated my page. Lots to talk about. First off there was a State Crit Champs in Costa Mesa. With the big local Pro teams in OK for a crit series, the race was wide open. I covered a lot of breaks early and got off the front with 3 guys for a while. Then a big move went. We could see they weren't working together very well. I decided to pick up the pace to bring them back. Some a-hole left me out in front and opened a gap to me, so I decided to bridge. I got within 50 meters or so and the break sat up. I looked back and the peleton was single file. I sat up to figuring the break was coming back. They didn't and I had to chase flat out the rest of the time. Morale of the race, never give up, and when in doubt bridge over. The 14 man break stayed away and I lost the race.

Then it was time for a good old Eldo. The race stayed together and I tried to string it out at the end for our sprinter and apparently not everyone at the front can hold 36mph. I gapped two guys in the front and the train fell apart. All good though our sprinter had a good wheel, but the guys lined up behind him had a better wheel and he got smoked in the end.

Then Bakerfield came. I was/am not in form to do 80 miles (8 laps on a 10 mile course) with two climbs in it. So i opted to do my age category instead of the pro race. I lined up for the 30+ race and there were 11 other guys. ELEVEN!!! That's pathetic. Of the 11 there were 2 cat.3's and one cat.4. The rest of us were all cat.2's. We attacked like crazy on lap 2 of 5 and a 5 man group including me got away. We drilled it to the last lap and had a silly huge lead. We hit the final climb (3/4 of a mile at 6%) and a flurry of attacks started. I followed wheels and felt good. We hit the hairpin at the top and had ~500m to the line slightly uphill the whole way. We all played the watching game. There were 2 guys I was watching and 2 I knew were toast. At ~250m I was the first to jump and got a BIG gap immediately. I put my head down and slammed it. One of the guys I was worried about started to chase, and the other guys I was worried about was on his wheel. So as I went from 14mph to 34mph and had to hold it, one guy pulled the other guy up to 30mph and then died, and the guy on his wheel jumped and started to sprint after me. With about 30m to go he was coming fast and I was running out of steam. He had just enough in him to get to the line just in front of me. I took 2nd and missed getting a State RR Championships. That sucked. It made for a long drive home knowing I got beat by such a small margin. I am pissed and I want a win, NOW!!!! It's on the rest of the season. I am going to attack like mad and make everyone's life hell. No more Mr. Nice Bike. The gloves are off.