Betonte on top of Benicia

6/27/2009 | Kyle was a witness to the 45+:

Score it a win! Gregg by several bike lengths.

Now for the 35+:

Gregg joined Banks, Wilson, me, and 61 others. Great course. Enough grade to weed out half the field. But, enough downhill to recover. Headwind on the flat straight at the bottom before the last right and start of climb. Uphill 150-200m finish.

Sayers, Leberge, Holtz present. Early break with Coates and ?. I pulled it back except last 50m. I wanted them to hang. Singles bridged until the gap was filled.

Sayers went, I think it was Fonseca with him. Gregg and Banks closed that down with a couple others, I was last to jump on. We had a gap but nobody wanted to work.

Another two man break but nobody that could hold it. 5 to go, POW, Gregg flats. Showing 4 now...no free lap. Sayers attacks solo. 12 seconds. One Rocknasium chased. I closed the gap. Sayers still had 12-14. Nobody chasing. Racing for 2nd. 2 to go. Field totally sat up. I went to front, finished the climb, the downhill, the headwind, and started up for the bell when Fonseca came around. I closed half the gap to Sayers.

He held 6 sec to finish. Leberge, ?EMC, Banks 4th, Max.

Fun race. Didn't stay to Landis.

Banks added:

Kyle hit all the highlights for the 35 race except he didn't say his pull at the end strung it out for a safe field sprint. Wish I could have done better than third. Thanks for the effort Kyle. I got a T-
shirt and $25 for fourth place. Splitting the money ain't hard, but the T-shirt?

I was the only Safeway in the P1/2. It was pretty hard for the first 15 minutes until a break went up the road. The rest of the race was still really hard for me, but the Bissell and Ouch guys in the main peleton looked like they were planning what to have for dinner. Group of five lapped the field: Chad; Zwin-something from Kelly Benefit; Ouch guy who rode in Bejing; and two others. Bejing Ouch guy won, Chad second, don't know the rest. I finished in the pack around 25th. My average heart rate for the hour race was 172.

Ouch indeed.