Course: Eighty mile hilly road course composed of five laps

Field: fifty riders, seven from TMB: Adam, Roman, James, Marcus, Travis, Walton and myself.  Marc Pro had Max, Justin, Jonathan, Jared, Ariel, HD, and one other dude who wears those ugly prescription Rudy Projects.

Lap 1: As planned, Walton gets into a break after the first climb, going off the front with Jonathan and two Bear Development riders.   They stick at about two minutes out until the last lap.  Walton flexes his legs a little, Jonathan is visibly jealous - and for some reason, hungry for pizza. 

Lap 3: Adam and I are looking for a bridge, and find one as Justin makes a jump.  Also joining us for fun times are Ariel Herrmann, Tobin Ortenblad (Cal Giant) and Luciano Sponza (Vu Medi). Justin didn't seem to like his odds, and so slowed down our group. This allowed Max Jenkins, one lap later, to bridge with Thomas Jondall (KHS-Maxxis).  We are now a group of seven chasing four.  Justin and Max are now willing to work and the pace picks up again. 

Lap 5: After the climb we connect with Walton’s break, and Max immediately attacks, splitting Walton and Luciano from our group.  Half-way through the lap, Marc Pro attacks again sending both Jonathan and Max off the front with Bryan Duke (Bear Development) and me.  We quickly put thirty seconds on the others and it would be a race between us for the win. 

Finish: I figured that a solo attack, which was the original plan, would be gobbled up by Jonathan in time to get Max in position for the climb.  Instead, I planned to go over the top of Max at the line. Jonathan brought us to the start of the climb, and at one kilometer to go Max dropped back to attack.  I went with him.  When he saw me on his wheel, he sat up and we all regrouped.  Max attacked again and I followed, but this time he got a gap which slowly extended over the 700m to the line. 

Results:

3rd Craig

7th Adam

11th Roman

18th Walton

19th James

21st Marcus

-Craig