CCCX 45+ 1/2/3 on June 3rd 2012

Quick report from CCCX by Andrew A. Race date is June 3rd 2012. Race was the 45+ 1/2/3's. Teammates were Devon, Daryoush and Super Dave.

I think I have done this race close to 250 times. The course feels like home now. Even with all this, it still manages to kick my ass each time. I forget that those little "bumps" hurt to get over. I was reminded quickly.

Somehow I manage to get in a break of six guys within five minutes of starting the race. The problem though is none of the "big dogs" were in our break and we had five or six big dogs barking back in the field. I rotate through in our break but not at full measure. We have 20 miles of rolling terrain ahead and I am about 10% confident in this break surviving. Lap two comes and suddenly we have 7 in the break. Turns out one of those big dogs bridged. Kevin Klein (ex-Rock Racing and Yahoo! pro rider) is up with us and working. Ok, now I think we have a 50/50 shot of surviving. I know Devon, Daryoush and Dave are working to protect the break in the pack, but I also know Dirk and Heaton are back in the peloton too. They will not sit idly by and let us ride away. Now I commit to the break and put in full pulls at full effort. We still have 15 miles to ride.

Final lap starts and Klein bolts out of the group. He takes along with him Chris Wire (SJBC-Cat 1). I am close to full on anaerobic and just can not follow. About two minutes later, Chris comes back to our group. Klein just rides away from all of us. Nothing we can do, he can just do that. So now our group of six is racing for second place. Coming into the final downhill I'm fourth wheel. We take the right to the finish and the sprint starts. I manage to pass one rider. I close on the next guy but he holds me off by half a wheel. I get third in the field sprint and fourth overall.

Some of the best fun started after the race as we sat around and rehashed the day. Was good to get out with the boys, do some racing and some trash talking. Great day! Thanks to Daryoush, Devon and Super Dave for protecting the break so well!

Congratulations as well to the rest of the team in our other races. Good group of guys! Will be fun to do this again next week.

Andrew