Before you know it, the race is on! 40 miles of Criterium racing in downtown San Francisco. I didn't get much of a warm up due to personal problems with my car so I used the race itself to help warm me up and see if I can make anything happen towards the end. David was aggressive from the start, attacking and following many moves throughout the race. Marcus was up at the front the entire race too and followed some attacks. Matt was in there most of the race and I think he learned a lot from his first pro/1/2 race. Moving later into the race there was a crowd prime going around that was going to be called out at 6 laps to go and I was licking my chops for that one more than the finish because it was almost $250. The field let a random rider go out there and take it instead and now I'm starting to think about the finish. David and Marcus are also up here in the front of the pack but somewhere David lost the wheels sometime during this and finished in the pack. Marcus positioned himself well, in the top 10, but wasn't in contention for the win. Meanwhile all of this positioning is going on, Bernard Van Ulden (Jelly Belly) rode away from the pack and nobody reacted until 2 laps to go. We reeled him in to 10 seconds by the finish but he won solo. Smart move by the Professional. McGuire had the riders today, instead of Cal Giant, so I jumped into position behind their train and oddly enough, no one fought for the wheels with me so I took that wheel into the last turn and sprinted behind the McGuire sprinter and held onto 3rd with junior gearing! I felt relieved after the race to get a good result in a hard race. Marcus still held onto 14th, too, so it was a good day overall for the team.
Jack Maddux and Chris LaBerge also raced in the Elite 3's earlier in the day.
Thank you for reading.
--James LaBerge
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