Rohnert Park Crit – P/1/2: 6th Place

P/1/2
Team: Aaron, Angelo & Jan
Place: 6th (Jan)
Course: Slightly undulating with gusty winds: 1.2 mile office park

The race got under way slowly but ramped up quickly. We had to do 75
min. Because of the wind, length of course and number of turns/curves a breakaway was bound to happen (almost every race before us was won in a break). After several attempts by us and others, one finally stuck and I think it was around 20 min into the race. Prior to that, we were all near the front taking turns going in breaks, but just missed this one that went away. Angelo tried to bridge up but the break was working too well together (Joel, Rand Miller, 2 other guys, one of which eventually got dropped). Angelo recalls, “I tried to bridge and they were almost instantly out of sight, after 2 solo laps I was back in the pack for some recovery.” So we tried with others to try and bring them back but no one was working well together at all. Jan tried several times to bridge and have some people come with him but it all got chased down by the pack. Angelo and Aaron continued covering attacks/bridge attempts. Jan finally made a move that stuck, “Then I (Jan) found myself on the front of the pack and I was like WTF so I attacked ala sprint and took a huge flier. Two guys came with me. So we started rotating well and got a great gap.” The break away had 45sec-1 min on Jan’s chase group, which eventually picked up the guy that was originally in the main breakaway and the 4 of them worked great together. So 3 up the road and Jan’s group of 4 chasing hard. With 40 sec or more on the pack this chase group was looking great. Jan’s group did not catch the main break, so they were racing for 4th. One rider attacked hard, Jan reacted and took 3rd in his group (6th overall).

We raced well today and we had fun. Granted, we should have been in that first group, but we are learning and getting better….

The (not-so) bad news of the day is that Jan’s placing earned us a box of Clif Bars, the winner got a case of beer. Personally, I (Angelo) think Jan should have rode harder and won us some beer.

Photo Credit: Mark Nakamura