It was yet another beautiful day in Northern California where we have the best weather in the country. This time, we were in the heart of The Bay in Burlingame with the temperature in the upper 60s and not a cloud in the sky. The team plan was to see how well our lead out train could deliver Travis and I to the line. We also wanted Roman to pick up some premier series points.
© 2014 Chris R
The course included a U-turn and two chicanes, both of which were off-camber, tight, and tricky. We took the line with in our Specialized Evade helmets and were ready for action. The race started out relatively fast with many riders going off the front to test their legs. Chris was solo for several laps, picking up some primes. About halfway through the race, there was a nasty crash in one of the chicanes, a rider took the inside line on the peloton and there simply wasn't enough room. The race was neutralized and unfortunately he was taken away by ambulance.
© 2014 Doug Pearl
© 2014 Doug Pearl
The race resumed shortly after with 15 laps to go and Walton took advantage of a sluggish restart and attacked from the gun. He had a short leash for a couple laps before Rainier countered. Rainier had a slightly longer leash for a handful of laps before getting brought back in. In the end, we stuck to our plan and started to congregate at the front of the race with 4 laps to go. We got everyone up to the front and by 2 laps to go it was full gas to the finish. With a couple riders trying to get into our lead out train, I tactically had to fend them off. Coming into the last corner, we still had Chris, Roman, Travis, and myself. Sprinting to the line as hard as we could as we shifted into our 53 x 11 Sram sprockets we ended up sweeping the podium with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd! Garrett Hankins of Vumedi took 4th and David Grundman of Team Bicycles Plus took 5th to round out the podium.
© 2014 Doug Pearl
© 2014 Doug Pearl
I would like to thank all of my teammates—Chris, Rainier, Craig, Marcus, Walton—for superior teamwork and for delivering Roman, Travis, and I to the podium. Roman snagged more premier series points and we got a chance to practice our lead out. While we had an amazing finish and were able to pull it together for the last 1-2 laps, we still need more work getting organized sooner. I would like thank all of our sponsors for your work and products that we use day in-day out! Lastly I would like to thank Doug Pearl for taking such great photographs!
Thanks for reading.
