by Adam Switters Suisun Harbor was the 4^th race of the Cal Cup series put on by Velo Promo. It’s part of a great series at end of the season races that helps keeps everyone’s motivation high well into September. Even though I was leading the series, the intention was for Team Mike’s Bikes p/b Incase to win the race regardless of who won. If we were able to keep the Cal Cup lead along the way, then that would just be an added bonus. Luckily, after an extended break in May/June, I’ve managed to come back into some form so I was pretty confident that I could pull off a good result for the team.

After yesterday’s first and third finish at the Dunnigan Hill’s road race, the team was flying on high spirits. We were obviously in good form and were excited to race a hard aggressive race. With Suisun’s short, technical and wind course (.5mi long), the race was ideal for a breakaway. We came up with a game plan that consisted of us racing aggressive and trying to stack any breakaways.

After starting out at the back of the pack, I quickly learned that the front of the race was the place to be. After moving up, I managed to spend a number of laps solo off the front before getting caught and countered by my flying teammate, Brandon Trafton. Brandon managed to quickly build up a 15sec gap that allowed me to follow bridge attempts. After following a few moves, we caught Brandon and I was surprised to see that 10 of us has extracted ourselves from the field and Eric had joined us to make 3 Team Mike’s Bikes riders out of 10. With 25 laps to go, our break had 15 seconds and I knew with the team represented, it was going to be hard for the peloton to pull us back.

The next 25 laps were a blur. The break maintained a fast speed not because of good cooperation, but rather because there was a constant flurry of attacks all the way to the finish. I threw in some good attacks, but with my good form, I as holding back a little and looking for the serious moves and my teammates Eric and Brandon were rock stars both attacking and covering every move that went. Much to our chagrin, the race came down to a sprint between the 10 of us. The last lap became chaotic with everyone trying to position themselves for the last corner. I stayed near the front and came through corner 3 in third wheel. Coming into the last corner, I jumped through a narrow gap between Ariel Herrman (Metromint Cycling) and my teammate Eric, managing to pull out a few bike lengths gap immediately as the gap closed. With a 200-meter tailwind finish, I was able to sit up comfortably with 50 meters to go and celebrate the win.

I definitely couldn’t have achieved this win without the selfless work of all my teammates (Eric, Brandon, James Laberge, Travis Lyons, and Rainier Schaefer). I also managed to extend my lead in the Cal Cup, which was an added bonus!

Adam Switters is a former professional cyclist and currently races for Team Mike’s Bikes p/b Incase. He is a USA Cycling Certified Coach is the owner of Switters Coaching. You can check him out at his website http://www.SwittersCoaching.com/. Feel free to comment if you have any ideas for workout or questions.