by Brandon Trafton The race started out pretty cold, there was some fog that rolled in over night and being from Fresno, with consistent 100* summers, I was freezing. Rainier however, felt right at home from living in the city of San Francisco.
Right from the gun a Garmin development rider attacked the pack non stop. There was some response from the field but the split finally happened about an hour into the race. There were seven guys up the road initially. Chris HD, Greg White and I then bridged shortly after. We rotated pretty consistently for the next lap and a half. Then Chris HD started attacking the breakaway group before the start of the fourth lap. After one move, I countered and a Lombardi Sports rider followed me. We were then caught by five of the initial break about 20K later.
About 15K to go, there were a series of attacks that ended up putting Colin Joyce (Cal Giant) up the road solo, Chris HD chasing and myself chasing Chris. I didn't look behind too much but when I did, it looked as if if was every man for himself. After I caught Chris, we rotated to catch Colin, we tried to attack around him but he was able to catch on as we passed. Colin was sitting on, so as I pulled out to signal him that he had to work, Chris attacked ceasing the opportunity (craft little devil). We gave Chris a few hundred meters and that was all he needed. He turned on the after burners and stayed away whiles Colin and I reluctantly chased keeping one eye on each other. Colin got the sprint for 2nd and I came in 3rd. It was a very fun race; super active, which I enjoy. Teammate Adam Switters still holds the Cal Cup by 3 pts. I'm looking forward to next weekend in Winters and Vacaville.
