Santa Cruz Crit Report

Santa Cruz Crit - Pro/1/2
Scheduled for 45 laps, ~50 miles
Field: 100+
Webcor AV Riders: Jono Coulter, Matt Beebe, Dominic Giampaolo, and myself
Place: OTB, down one lap

The wind that decimated the field Sat at Sea Otter was back in full force for the Santa Cruz Crit on Sun. This time, it was right in our face as we climb up the hill to the start/finish line. Several of the pro teams that raced the Sea Otter Circuit Race showed up for Sunday's crit KodakGallery, after being left out of the Tour de Georgia, took their frustrations out on the rest of the field in Santa Cruz on Sun.

Right from the gun, the pace was fast and furious. Dominic and I made our way to the front third of the pack as attacks were going off the front. About five laps into the race, a group of four, containing most of the big teams (I think it was CalGiant, Kodak, PriorityHealth, and BMC), had gotten off the front. I saw Dominic make a move to bridge up to them so I made my way to the front of the pack to do a little blocking. Unfortunately Dominic didn't quite make it up to the break, so I attacked to try to cover the move. Attacking from the front of the pack isn't the easiest thing to do, but I still opened up a gap. Over the next lap, I almost caught the break, coming within about 10 meters, but just couldn't get to them. I think they caught sight of me trying to bridge and picked up the pace a bit.

I got caught by the main group at the top of the hill on the next lap right before the 180 degree turn. After the turn, I started to accelerate to integrate myself back into the pack when all of a
sudden, BAM, I hit the large pothole in the middle of the descent and my back tire blows out. So there I am, thinking, "Great, I take the whole day, drive all the way down to Santa Cruz, with my fiancée watching, only to flat on the 7th lap. And of course, the one time I didn't bring any extra wheels! Fantastic!" So I decided to run back up to the pit anyways, hoping to beg and plead with someone for a wheel. On the way up, I see Beebe, who had pulled out just before, and he graciously gives me his wheel. The good thing about the flat was that I got to rest for a few minutes while the pack came around again.

After jumping back in the race, I tried to stay mid-pack to in order to avoid congestion in the turns. Dominic was hanging in there too, riding well and staying well within the main group. By this time, the break of four had swelled to about thirteen and they were gaining time. 30 seconds by mid race, then a minute with about 10 laps remaining. We could easily hear the announcer throughout much of the course giving updates on the break's status. At one point the break split again, with four going off the front and the other nine scattered in between. At about 5 laps to go, those four leaders, containing two Kodakgallery riders, lapped the field. At this point, they weren't content with just two in the top four spots, they wanted all of the remaining break back in the pack so the rest of their team could sprint for the other top ten spots. So the whole Kodakgallery team got to the front and drilled it. I saw them fly by me and the rest of the pack on the hill in full team-time-trial mode. Ouch! I was barely hanging on at this point, and this increase in speed was just too much. I drifted off the back of the now smallish pack and finished the last three laps on my own.

I'm not sure how the top places ended up. I was quite spent after the race and limped back to the car, but happy to have stuck in there as long as I did. 45 sprints up that hill in under 2 hours is a pretty good workout!

Tailwinds,
Peter