Stockton GP Race Report

A couple of the guys started the weekend off with a crit in Stockton. Highlights included James making the best break of the day with ProTour rider, Aaron Olsen of T-Mobile, among others. It was brought back with a couple laps to go but James found the strength to hang in there for a solid top 10 finish against a bunch of big-money seeking sprinters, which was good since Rob got caught up in a crash toward the end of the race. Below is James' report.

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Race: Pacific State Grand Prix

Date: 23 Jun 2007
Category: Pro 1/2

Team: James Badia (9th) & Rob MacNeill (17th)

This was my first time racing the Stockton Grand Prix put on by the Delta Velo club. A .8 mile L shaped course made for some solid efforts throughout the day. The course had some rough spots with the usual dots on the road and some potholes here and there, but in all a good course. The $10,000 Pro 1/2 purse paying 20 deep brought out some serious talent including the a large showing from Cal Giant, Delta Velo, BPG, Lombardi, and other fast teams.

With only two of us there the plan for the day was to share the covering of attacks and try to get one of us in a breakaway. Also we were going to try and be more selective about which attacks we would cover. The race started out plenty fast and maintained a high pace throughout the 90 minutes. There were three primes for the day, but I told Rob I am on a no prime diet for the rest of June, based on what has happened the last two races.

Rob and I both covered attacks and kept near the front in the top 25 riders for the majority of the race. With 10 laps to go I got into a breakaway with Aaron Olson (T-Mobile, yes the Pro Tour team), Daniel Holloway (VMG), and Tim Granshaw (Morgan Stanley). We established a gap of about 10 seconds after being away 2 laps, this is when Tim dropped out of the break which left Aaron, Daniel, and myself. Aaron was doing a huge amount of work taking some awesome pulls. I was doing everything I could to stay in the break telling myself that I was not going to get ridden out of the break. With 4 laps to go we had about a 12 second gap which seemed significant at the time. This is when Aaron decided to stop taking pulls for some reason which cannot figure out. Anyways, Daniel and I continued to rotate through with Aaron staying at the back of our group. With seven to go a crash must have happened because when I came by the start/finish line I saw Rob and a bunch of other riders lining up to get back in the race. Sadly our breakaway was caught with 2 laps to go due to a concerted chase from Cal Giant. I was absorbed by the pack but did my best (with what I had left in the tank) to stay near the front. On the bell lap the Cal Giant team organized a 7 man leadout train that I tried to get into with little success. The last lap speed was crazy fast, I pedaled to the point my legs felt like they were going to start locking up from my breakaway attempt. A small crash happened in the last corner, luckily neither Rob or I were near it. A mass sprint to the finish with Cal Giant taking a few of the top spots, me in 9th, and Rob in 17th.

Webcor got a good amount if mic time while I was in the breakaway, and the announcer (John Elgart) called me up for a brief interview to ask me what it was like to be in breakaway with a pro tour rider.

In summary I think Rob and I raced an awesome race for only having 2 guys to represent our team. We were smart about the attacks we covered and both rode strong.

James