Eric, Nils and I suited up for the championship event, cat1-3, 105 miles. Eric and I arrived back in California exactly 14 hours earlier after a 12 hour drive from Bend (for me), so that plus a 50 degree temperature swing was going to make this race interesting for us.

had about 50 starters, with a nice set of starberries and paul mach of bissell. i found out rather quickly that i couldn't freakin breathe... dunno what's been happening to me lately but it felt like i was breathing thru a straw and couldn't get enough air down. since about two weeks ago (before Diamond Valley) any hard efforts have been rewarded by soaring heart rate and panting. terrific.

well, keeping the short story, break goes after mach attacks half way up the climb on lap 2 and we miss it, mach, jesse more, fabrice, chris coble, and evan pickett were able to hang onto pauls wheel as he motored up. the break hovers at about 1 minute gap, then the gap starts to grow. nils works early to help maintain the pace, then i took over from about lap 5 to the end.

with a few to go, i asked Eric to start attacking on the climb, he does and it works great, gets the field all aggro, and from that point forward we started shedding guys every lap with the increased pace.... including the final remaining U23 rider. Reaney manages to slip away between attacks, and Hunt bridges up to him on the climb, so places 1 thru 7 are up the road.

i kept the pace strong on the last 4 km, and threw out the 'chute at 1 km to go. eric takes second in the field sprint for 9th place (and some upgrade points i believe), and he's also the new district U23 champ (or chimp).

mach ended up winning, but an irregular sprint was being protested by silver medalist jesse moore. fabrice rolled in a few minutes later for 3rd.