Battle of San Jacinto Day 1, 6th Place!

If you look good, you already won half the battle

The only plans I had before heading out to the race was to give my bike a good wash before heading out to the memorial. After I cleaned up the ol GIANT TCR, I glanced down at my watch and saw that I still had over 4 hours till the start of the race. I decided to use this free time and catch up with some Netflix before heading out to the races.

Once I finally made it out to the monument I was able to quickly spot my teammates with their bright neon green/yellow bikes. For the race today GIANT Racing was bringing four riders to the start line. Beau, Jonny, Scott, and myself.

The start of the race was a quick one where Jonny and I led the pack through the first two turns of the race. The air was thick enough to cut with knife, and the sun was beating down on us without remorse, it was not going to be an easy race for anyone. As the race started to pick up I faded back just a few positions in the pack to keep a closer eye on the heavy hitters that would be in the pack.

Beau and I in the Break.

The attacks started to pick up, and I made sure not to waste any energy in the wind. I followed the wheels of the strong riders and I quickly found myself in a split of 4. I quickly recognized Sabastian Haedo was up the road with me, which meant there was going to be a hard chase by the pack to bring us back. I went to the front of the break and did my time at the front to help keep the gap open. Before I knew it a handful of riders came across to the move and we had ballooned from 4 riders to over 12. Luckily Beau and came across with the surge and was now with me in the break. Quickly our move of 12 started to whittle down as the pressure was on. We slowly came down to about a 7 rider split where attacks and surges were strong and continuous. As the time gap approached close to 2 minutes the speed started to tank as a few of the riders started playing cat and mouse. I made sure not to get caught out on the wrong end of the attacks and going into the last lap the breakaway was still a group of 7. Beau went to the front and I was behind him in second wheel. Beau started to raise the speed to prevent any attacks from coming around us. I sat patiently on his wheel, I was waiting to get a little closer to the finish before starting my sprint. However, with just over 400 meters to go and 2 more turns to the finish the sprint started from behind. I jumped hard to try to catch the wheels of the riders coming around me, but I was not able to catch on to the back of their wheels. The final few turns came fast and I was not able to close down the gap that the riders got in the jump before I crossed the line. I would end up finishing 6^th place.

6^th was a disappointing result, especially since GIANT was the only team in the race to get two riders in the break of seven. I knew I had good legs today, just had a mental lapse in my approach to the sprint. I would have another opportunity tomorrow!