Bang the drum for another edition of the Timpani Criterium, held in the shadows of Great America in picturesque Santa Clara, CA. Save for a ton of wind, this course is 1.25 miles of wide open office park, two cone slalom courses, a carbon rim-eating pothole and 85 other riders with their eye on the prize.
The 65 minute race started with some pre-race re-pinning (thanks Bruce!) and some Official Megaphone volume boost by Steve Reaney; just to be sure everyone knew that free laps ended with 3 to go.
It was a fairly fast criterium (I had 44 kph average), but the wind on the back stretch really made it difficult for stuff to get away. I think I counted 10-12 attacks during the first 2/3s of the race, but nothing got more than 15 seconds. Neil, Greg, Thomas, Rob, James, Matt^2, Brian, etc. all made some mad dashes off the front to cover moves nicely.
Rand "Bam Bam" Miller was out to bang his head and seemed to either initiate or cover every other move off the front. That guy is a machine. You can always tell it's him (and not his doppelganger Rob) by the pimp white full-finger gloves.
This was my first race back with Bruce and I was super stoked to see him out there swingin' it again for the Big Green Machine! Bruce made some nice covers and was really present at the front of the race with 5 laps to go. Plus, he let me touch his super sick Lew Wheels. I think just touching them dropped a couple pounds from my fat frame.
Ok, I digressed a little bit. Five laps to go and I think the peloton came to the conclusion that it would be a field sprint. A few guys attempted some flyers here and there, but the wind seemed to get stronger and the flyers dangled off the front as if they were stuck in flypaper. Graham, Greg, Bruce, Brian, Matt and Rob made a great move to the front and made a super hard lead out effort with three to go. Then, with one to go Giant took over and Pat, Steve and Keith were at the front. I tried to slot in on Keith's wheel but there was a lot of "bumping and barging" (Paul Sherwin speak) for the wheels and ended up behind Dave McCook and Kevin Klein.
I took an outside line through the last corner and came around Kevin for third with Dave in second and Keith in first.
Great to see so many teammates out. Looking forward to a strong end to the season.
BP
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