POOR KIDS COLLEGE ROAD RACE (or TEAM PLATINUM DOMINATION TIME)

Well all I can say is that Today's race was AWESOME. I am really glad that racing has started and that I am blessed to live in Southern California where we race in January!

First off I have to give it up to the UCSB kids for stepping up to the plate and putting on such a great event right in our own back yards. The course has been used off and on over the years (previously known as good ol days) and with the new pavement on the back side this course kicked but. Hopefully the UCSB racing organization will continue to provide great bike racing in California for many years to come.

It was an out and back course in Santa Ynez right in the heart of wine country; home to such famous brands as Brander and Firestone. There is a little hill, but nothing too bad. We had numbers on our side and fielded an 8 man squad of seasoned (albeit somewhat out of practiced) Cat 1's. I think Ron and I were the only cat 2's on our team.

So how did it go down? Well I'm glad you asked. Like any good well organized team we met about 30 minutes before the race to go over the 'plan'. The idea was pretty simple: we had enough guys to try to go with everything and with the center line rule in effect we wanted to try to stay towards the front. The roll out was slow. Very slow... Slow enough to allow the Hammer to roll off the front at a cool 16 mph. Before the hill he was out of site. After that there were several attacks which the team covered very nicely.
On the back side Walker rolled off and I was in good position and it was my turn so I rolled with him. The back side of the course saw a tail wind that did not provide much draft... especially behind Walker. With a team mate up the road I was sitting on, which C-walk was not too happy about (and oh man did he let me know it), but I felt as though I was tactically in the right. We caught The Hammer on the hill going into the end of the first lap and opened up a Gap of around 3 minutes. Once we caught The Hammer I started pulling and also started to get very excited that I was off the front with a sizable gap in my first ever p12 road race with team advantage. Ben (The Hammer for those not in the know) was pretty tired from a hard 30 miles already but seemed to be finding incredible bursts of speed. Apparently that went on for the rest of the race where he would almost throw in the towel but then find some energy down deep. I was taking it easy when I was pulling through on the downhill stretch because I knew that Chris was not going to make it easy on the hill. Other then that I was pretty excited to be in a break with riders who typically win from break away's... Then came the turn around and the end of my race. I don't want to get into to what happened or how it went down but I hit the pavement, broke my seat and tweaked the handlebars and shifters...
As quickly as it started it ended. The moto ref came rolling up and said "You have over three minutes on the main field if you want to get on rolling". I looked at my bike and decided nahhh... this race was over for me.
Shortly after Mdub came rolling up in a chase group that eventually shattered to only 4 riders who ran into the Hammer. But Cwalk had dropped Ben on the hill and rolled into a solo victory. Good win for Coastal Tree Care who are local to Solvang.
Right behind him nipping at his heels was the chase group that had absorbed Ben right after the climb. Mdub rolled in for a 4th place with Ben right behind him at place 5. Three more riders who had been shelled from the chase rolled in next and Gary Won the field sprint (I think) for a 9th place finishing... So that was that: The first road race of the season with 3 top tens in the race.

And the most exciting part of the race for me: IF I HAD NOT CRASHED I WOULD HAVE BEEN RIGHT THERE... that's right, I was there in the winning move... not saying I would not have blown up or would not have been dropped etc... but i was there... AWE---SOME.

Motivation could not be higher for me right now. I am super stoked and psyched to be racing with the big dogs and am itching for more pain tomorrow at Mothballs.

I can not say enough about the team this year. I have a lot to learn and I am surrounded by the right guys from which to learn. So tonight its Advil and Liquid bandage and tomorrow its wrenching the bike to get it ready to race.

Results as I know them so far:
p12
Matt Dubberly: 4
Ben Haldeman: 5
Gary Douville: 9
Marco Fennelli: 19
Adrian Gerrits: 21
Brian Cook: 22


Cat 3:
Steve Weixel: 18th
Derek Johnson: 41

Here is a snippet of what Sexy Wiexy had to say about today's haps:

"Race went pretty well actually, better than I expected. There was a break that was nearly caught at the line but just finished ahead of the field sprint. I was in good position a few wheels back and advancing on the right side when some yahoo came off the front on the left side and swerved across the road in front of us, basically killing all the momentum and any chance I had in the sprint. I could have salvaged a few more places but I didn't see the point."

Stay tuned for many more results to come:

Other really cool Highlights:
Former Olypian turned family man weekend warrior master bikes man Dave Latteri won the cat 3 field sprint for 3rd place (and on his birthday to boot- looks like the old man's still got it).
Chicken Ranchers Susie Willet and Jane Faulker went 1, 2 in the women s 3/4 race... WAY TO GO LADIES!