Napa Crit and Santa Cruz Crit Race Reports

After the Altamont TTT earlier Saturday, a full Webcor/Alto Velo crew converged on downtown Napa for more racing. The Napa Crit is a short 1km course made difficult by technical turns and wind. Attrition in the race is usually high and this edition was no exception. Parnes' did well in the field sprint to nab 5th overall.

On Sunday, a huge contingent of the W/AV Elite Team came together again for another day of racing. This time at the 41st (!) annual Santa Cruz Classic Criterium. This is another very difficult crit punctuated by a hairpin turn and a short steep hill every lap. It's usually nuts from the gun and lasts 50 laps for about 90 minutes of high speed suffering. Only the strong finish and only the truly mighty do well on this course. The W/AV team had our strongmen Fabrice and Rand in the lead group for most of the race. Fabrice had an unfortunate mechanical and couldn't finish. Parnes made a late bridge from the main pack and finished with a group off the front containing Rand for 11th and 12th. BP took the field sprint for 16th.

Below are Parnes' reports from both races.

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Napa River Velo Gran Prix P/1/2

Teammates: Justin Fraga, Chris Crawford, BP Buchholz, Rob MacNeill, Rand Miller, James Badia, Neil Harrington, Bo Hebenstreit
Result: 5th of ~50, Rand 7th

This course is a real doozy! The fastest 4 corners in cycling and then a "crazy P" turn linked by a short straightaway. The race was fast from the gun, and when a crash eventually happened about 10 laps in, Daniel Ramsey of Mt. Khakis Pro Cycling took off and never came back. Pretty rad solo move that he stuck for 50 minutes of an hour long crit. Our boys were up front animating the race. Getting themselves in every move and making a few of their own. Alas, nothing and nobody was was going to bring Daniel back and no one was anxious to get caught out of a move that went.

I covered a move and found myself in a small break with Tim Farnham (Sp?) of Bissel and a Wells Fargo racer. We worked well with each other for a number of laps, but Daniel was still pulling away and the pack was hot on our heels. We were caught with a few laps to go, but we all tried to stay up front, as there wasn't a lot of room to move up. With one to go I was 3rd wheel behind Tim and Jared (CalGiant). I went into the P-turn 3rd, but was so toasted from the break effort that I got passed by one person in the sprint. Shame.

We had a pretty strong ride as a team, covering moves and animating the race, and I'm happy with how we rode. We all suffered a little, Rand had a strong finish, and everyone kept their skin. All in all a good day.

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41st Santa Cruz Classic
April 5, 2009

HUGE team: Justin Fraga, Graham Simpson, Peter Cazalet, Billy Crane, BP Buchholz, Fabrice Dubost, Rob MacNeill, Rand Miller, James Badia, Neil Harrington, Bo Hebenstreit, Jeff Williams, Thomas Novikoff
Result: 11th, Rand 12th, BP 16th, James 20th of 105

This is one of my favorite races of the calendar. The course is dynamic, the weather is great and the spectators' clothing is limited. A strong field of 105, including a number of pros, took the line. I nabbed myself a sweet spot at the front of the pack, anticipating a fast race from the gun. Mr. Mendonca of Lombardi backed in in front of me, but he assured me he'd be out of my way. He was more correct than he knew: photo . I just heard he separated his shoulder, which sucks. I wish him a speedy recovery.

The race was pretty rippin' from early on. I didn't have a very good sense of the race as I was just chillin' in the pack while Rand and Fabrice animated things up front for about 40 of 50 laps. I was just focusing on spinning the legs and staying fresh in case things came back together. Apparently things up front were pretty hard out, with a break of ~10 that included Andy JM, Roman Kilun, Daniel Holloway, Tyler Wren, Michael Sayers and James Mattis.

With a few laps to go Ben JM took off on the climb before the s/f and I went with him. He sat up when he saw people responding, but I decided that with just a few laps to go it was time to make a move. I kept on trucking and when I looked back Evan Pickett (Metromint rider and old friend from Stanford) and Ben were on my wheel. Evan pulled through like a champ, but Ben was just sitting on. I should have said something, but its hard to muster the courage to talk trash to Ben JM. Evan and I worked together for another lap or so, but I decided that it didn't make much sense to drag Ben up to a break with my two teammates in it. Evan was committed and did maybe a lap and a half all by himself (impressive). What I didn't know at the time was that Fabrice had dropped out due to a mechanical and Rand was alone up the road.

I finally heard Justin yelling that I had to GO, GET MY @$$ UP THERE! I started trading pulls again and we caught the break with only one lap to go. Ben immediately took off. Sayers, Holloway and Mattis were off the front, so that left Rand and I in the break sprinting for 5th. I was gassed from bridging and Rand was gassed from 40 laps in the break and it was all we could do to muster something that looked like a sprint. Impressive ride by Rand and Fabrice. I'm sure they'd have mixed it up except for that small mishap.

A lack of communication was responsible for leaving a lot of fresh legs back in the pack, but when you look at the caliber of the field it wasn't a total rout.

See you next year, SC Classic.