Suisun Harbor Criterium

JD, Sean, Josh, Elliot, and Dylan lined up for this windy short crit.

Suisun can easily splinter to bits due to the super windy conditions and less than half mile four corner course that we roll around 72 times, so the BPG boys made sure to have at least one guy off the front with every break that went. Lots of promising moves went up the road including Sean solo for 8 laps, but nothing stuck until about 15 laps to go.

Elliot and Sean made it into a split of about 15 guys that got about 15 seconds off the front of the main field. Josh, Dylan and I cruised at the front of the field following anyone who even though about trying to bridge. The gap to the break started to shrink with about 5 laps laps to go as the field realized it was now or never time, if they wanted to reel in the break.

Dylan hit the deck with 4 laps to go following the single file peleton through turn one, but escaped with only some missing skin for his trouble.

The Field made contact with the break, just as we were hearing the bell for one lap to go. I made my move up the inside after turn 2. I continued to move up through turn 3 and then jammed the inside of turn four as hard as I could as most everyone was taking it wide to try to ride the finishing straight in the protected - from the wind - right hand gutter. I was probably tenth wheel through the last corner, but was able to use my cornering and open road to start my sprint immediately. I was passing guys like they were standing still as I was well recovered from my earlier efforts, due to the free ride I had gotten in the peleton, cuz of Sean and Elliot's breakaway. I was closing in on the front of the field fast, but was just not quite able to reel in Eric Wohlberg and a kyoto sangyo university rider who had gapped off the rest of the field. Elliot followed me in for sixth place.

After the race there was lots of complaining from the field about an erratic sprint from Wohlberg, who was eventually relegated for putting everyone in the gutter. While I didn't see the incident, as I was sprinting on the opposite side of the road, others told me, and I'm inclined to believe them, that Eric's sprint was fine and that it was the kyoto sangyo university rider who put everyone into the curb.

While having someone relegated in front of you is not the best way to move up in the standings, I officially ended up second (for the fourth time this year. I swear I'll win one of these stupid bike race things one of these days.) and Elliot ended up fifth for a pretty decent day for the BPG crit squad.

ICCC Dash for Cash race report

This was a classic business park race- flat, 4 corners and spiced up with some wind. I won't deny that I took special pleasure in receiving the number 666 at this International Christian Cycling Club promoted race and I was feeling optimistic about my chances in this race. My confidence was further bolstered by the attendance of my teammates Matt Tamel, JD Bergman, Sean McBride, Logan Loader and Dylan Clark and of course Sergei Badeka calling the shots on the radio.

There were upwards of 130 starters since it was a P/1/2/3 race and in addition to a lot of inexperienced cat 3's there were many of the usual nor-cal fast men at the start including a few guys who get paid to ride; Healthnet's Roman Kilun and Rock Racing's Kevin Klein were present as well.

Our strategy for the day was to avoid possible problems created by a big, unpredictable field by riding at the front and making the race good and fast to reduce the field size as quickly as possible- it seemed like I was not alone in this tactic as the pace was high from the gun.

There were a lot of attacks all throughout the race and by the look of the results, our plan worked and there were a lot of non-finishers. The format of this race has changed and instead of a $10 prime on every lap, there were several $40 primes spread throughout the day. For such a large field, the prizes were surprisingly small... and no cash at all for the top 5 as it turned out. Can't complain too much I guess, but with a name like Dash for Cash I was kind of expecting something signifigant to race for. The primes did serve to split a few breaks off the front, but nothing seemed like it would stick and by the later part of the race it was clear that we were looking at a sprint.

That didn't stop us from making the effort to get off the front with every attack- all the BPG riders were working hard to be represented in possible moves. In the last 30 minutes, I think I was in 3 different breakaway attempts; Sergei kept telling me to go, so that's what I did. I thought I was going to die a couple times when the break I was in came back to the group and I immediately found myself in a position to go with the counter... I was determined to leave every bit of energy I had out on the course so I just got in the pain bag and went with every attack I could.

Soon enough we were hearing the bell for the final lap and I was still in the mood to suffer so I got up as close to the front as I could. I got lucky and found myself coming into the last corner in the 4th spot- I sprinted hard but I was boxed in and couldn't improve on that position. Nobody came past me and I was 4th with JD rolling in just behind me. 4th and 5th, not bad!

-Josh Snead