We had a good crew at Wente Brut today with Rob, Billy, Dylan, Mick, Craig, Steve, Wyatt, Jeff and myself. We decided that we would make sure to cover the early move to take the pressure off the team. When the group went on the first lap, Rob was our guy on the spot. He was part of a four man group that included last year's Wente RR winner, Chris Wire of Team San Jose, Brenon Daly from Team Spine, and Dan Bryant from Sierra Nevada. Their gap grew quickly and next thing we knew they had three minutes.
With two laps to go on the Flynn Road climb, Chris Phipps put in a hard effort from the bottom. Icouldn't follow him and rode a hard tempo at the front so that I could close him down when it flattened out. You've got to know what you can and can't do... Billy came by me and quickly closed on Chris. So, I gave it a bit more and was able to claw my way up to them by the finish line. That one hurt. A lot. Billy was looking as smooth as ever and kept the pressure on big time as we crossed over 580 through the false flat section. I knew I was in trouble because Billy looked like he was out for a Sunday stroll and Chris was talking away behind me. Finally I had to ask Billy to back off a bit so that I didn't pop. I didn't count how many times I had to ask him that, but it was more than one...
Coming up Flynn Road to get the bell we were getting close to Rob's foursome. The pace wasn't as bad for me this time, but Billy was still doing a ton of work. Finally on Patterson Pass we caught the break. Things were looking good, we had three guys out of seven. Rob and I monitored the group and made a series of attacks and counter attacks. None of them really got anywhere until Rob went again with about 4 miles to go. Brenon joined him and they got a promising gap. Dan Bryant drove on the front while the rest of us sat on. Rob and Brenon were doing well and kept their gap until we got to the hill. Again it was Chris Phipps who nailed it at the bottom. I jumped after him to cover for Billy as best I could. Luckily Billy was right there and came around me to get on Chris' wheel because I was done after about 10 pedal strokes. Chris and Billy rode away on the steep section. Chris knew that he had to get rid of Billy on the steep part or he was doomed. Billy had other ideas and stayed on the wheel and easily won the sprint. I tried to come around Dan Bryant for 3rd but ran out of gas and settled for 4th. Rob finished off his long adventure by placing 6th.
All in all, it was a good hard day of racing! And toasty warm too. FINALLY!
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