The San Dimas stage race has been around for a long time and now features as the final warmup race leading up to the National Racing Calendar (NRC) opener in Redlands in early April. The day before the race we went for an opener ride around the Rose Bowl. Definitely cool.
Day 1 featured a 13 minute uphill time trial. The road was really twisty which made it a pretty fun event for how painful it was. Matt Cooke, the team's star climber posted an awesome time of 13:02 to claim 2nd on the stage and the climber's jersey.
Day 2's 132 kilometre road race featured a short but difficult 11km circuit. Riding to defend Cooke's 2nd place overall, Barley and I took upon the role of delivering Matt to the base of the climb each lap, as an array of tollbooths, potholes, road furniture and a crosswind dam section made for an extremely stressful run in.
Day 3's final criterium was a stressful day as the team looked to secure Matt's position despite time bonuses available at 30 and 60minutes into the 90minute event while looking to set up Carlos for the finale. Kenda controlled most of the race as was their duty (being that Ben Day remained in the leader's jersey) but we were able to keep Matt safely at the front of the bunch. With four laps to go our finale plan came unravled as Andres, Kai and I were involved in a late race crash, leaving Carlos effectively teammateless for the leadout. Carlos was able to salvage 5th in the finale and Matt came through safely to complete the team's hard efforts.
Readying for the criterium
(L-R: Slack, Andres on the phone & Sam)
Cookie, the man of the hour, pins his numbers on our way to stage 3
Team strongman, Kai Applequist, memorizies the numbers of those surrounding Matt in the GC. He'll later place this paper on his top tube for quick reference with the hopes of neutralizing dangerous attacks and sprint bonus primes.
L-R: Annik (team super supporter and amazing cook), Terry and John Ferro (Ventura homestay), Matt "Cookie" Cooke awaiting the podium presentations after a solid ride in San Dimas.
Labels: Road Report
