Another Ugly T-shirt

The Patterson Pass road race started out fast from the start thanks to a tall (6' 4") rider from San Jose Bike Club, who went to the front and pulled us up 3/4 of the first climb into the wind. The entire field was strung out single file as we climbed due to a wicked head wind. Being one one side or another of the riders wheel directly in front made a noticeable difference, it was that windy.



Following the descent, "the giant" as he would become known to our pelaton, went to the front on the rollers and proceeded to split the field in 1/2. I almost missed this break, wow ! Did expect that. I made sure to be attentive to any moves he made following that. At the start of the 2nd lap the lead group was down to 20. No one seemed willing to try anything into the head wind so I was able to stay tucked, and had a relatively easy time of it on the long climb.

I figured the attacks would come at the 2nd climb. They came sooner but I was ready, two riders got off the front and I let other riders take up the pace and we held them steady at 50 meters until the start of the 2nd climb. About 3/4 the way up the 2nd climb I went to the front to try to close on the leaders. I didn't quite make it up to them but did drag 3 riders up. They came by and I gave it everything to stay on their wheels as we closed to the leaders.

We now had a lead group of six with a break on the field. At this point we started working together, executing a fairly seemless rotating paceline. We kept this up through most of the 2nd lap, I was thinking about the last little riser before the finish and starting to get a bit worried. Sure enough once we hit the riser my legs lit up and I started falling off, ugh.

I rolled across about 30 seconds off the lead group missing the sprint for the finish,probably would not have made any difference but you never know.

My take home for 6th was another ugly T-shirt.