The Golden State Circuit Race presented by Rio Strada Racing took place on wide sweeping roads around a business park near City Hall in Rancho Cordova. It was basically an office park crit on a slightly longer course than normal (2.5 miles).
It was just Dustin Hahn and I representing Marc Pro - Strava in the 60+ field. Cal-Giant, Webcor, Team Clif Bar and Freemont Bank fielded full squads.
3 laps in, an 8-10 man break literally rolled off the front of the field, with all the big teams represented (minus Marc Pro - Strava), and that was it. Cal-Giant and Webcor did a spectacular job of nullifying any move that went up the road, and successfully blocked the field from getting no closer than 30 seconds to the break. The two big teams were actually cooperating by the end of the race, taking turns covering moves and blocking. One word, BORING!
So I sat about 10 guys back the whole race, dick in my hand, practically falling asleep as attack after attack was reeled back in. (I'd show a picture of this, however it is a very unsafe maneuver and highly inappropriate for this blog) To give some idea of the effort of sitting-in, I average a measly 220 watts for the 60 minute race. However, neither Dustin or I had the kind of horsepower to bridge a 45 second gap, and the blocking was so effective that attacking was truly pointless. It was just a matter of waiting out the field sprint.
I was 7th wheel going around the final corner into the finish, as Mr. 6th wheel decided to just sit up 200 meters from the line. Sitting up before the finish line, what the fuck... Jumping around the untimely gap, I sprinted for somewhere around 15 - 20th place.
We can only blame ourselves for not making it into the initial winning break. Next time.
