By Brandon Trafton The Red Kite Series has been truly great all season. This was the 4th criterium in the series, but the course was altered to change the dynamics of the race. I was a lone wolf in this race, no teammates to share the work. The previous two Red Kite races that I have done this year ended in a break, so I was expecting this one to finish the same.
Lombardi Sports and Leopard were the two teams with numbers in the race. Sure enough, they used them to their advantage and ensured they were well represented in the breaks. Chuck Hutcheson and William Myers from Marc-Pro Strava were also active throughout the race. I did my fair share of attacking as usual, but nothing was sticking.
Finally with 10 laps to go, I was able to get of the front with Patrick Briggs from the Prime Time Masters team. We rotated, but behind the pack was chasing hard. We were caught with 2 laps remaining so tried to positioned myself for a sprint. Jared Kessler of Folsom Bike laid in a great lead out for his teammate Matt Chatlaong, Matt got the win by a tire in front of Randy Bramblett. Unfortunately, I lost some positioning on the back side of the course, but held on for a 9th finish. Another great race for the week, looking forward to the upcoming week in Novato with a handful of Team Mike’s Bike’s p/b Incase riders.
