January 20 - Cal Aggie Criterium
Race info

Results

Is this race really happening?

Photos:
Hanan Alves-Hyde and Hanns Hartman
Mark A. Adkison, Ph.D, Hors Categorie Photography

Report: by Michael Hernandez,  Safeway Team Cycling, 

Report by Michael Hernandez

DATE: January 20th, 2007 (sweet jesus ... is it really '07? i mean, in a few years we'll be in the 20-teens ... isn't that like, science fiction 'n stuff?)

RACE: Cal Aggurt Criterium (... season opener put on by the CalDavis kids ... collegiate champs, or somethin')

CONDITIONS: frosty on the grasses, then warm, then downright balmy for the drive home (... El Nino is like a wacked-out girlfriend who makes you hot n' cold on the same date. )

- - -
That's right, the '07 roadie scum season is upon us Kalifornicators. The Cal Aggie crit has evolved into something of a NorCal bottle of bubbly crashing against the virgin hull of a new bike racing year ... launching us into yet one more cycle of silliness where we pedal hard, sweat much, and hope to grin about it all afterwards.

Thanks to the kids of Davis, the officials, and volunteers that make it all happen. It's a good event and we wanky racer-types sho'nuff do appreciate it.

- - -
The juniors and women raced first and ... it's probably time to send those two fields into separate races at this point in the evolution of the Aggie crit. Both fields were large enough and might get larger if we could hold them separate. But, having the two fields racing on the course at the same time didn't really upset much of the motions this year, so ... all good, in my book.

In the junior event, an AMD boy and two Davis youngsters separated from the field early into a man-size break-away effort. Let me just say ... the pace was haaaaawwwwt for those lil buggars from word "go." Holey-crap was it fast. The AMD boy-O was pullin' his eyeballs out and the two Davis fellas looked pretty in-control. Wish i knew their names, yo. (anybody help? pics 'd be good, too)

Anyway, the Spine riders were completely shut out of the break and did their best to mount a chase ... but, those three boys were motoring along too smoothly for the Spineys to do much but hold them at 20-30 seconds. Hard riding.

In the end, the Davis riders put in a wicked little back breaker of an acceleration and ditched the AMD youngster ... who, happy to report, stuck it out for third against the charging field.

- - -
In the women's event ... it was a Velo Bella vs. UC Davis affair. The college girls were quite exuberant and showed themselves well ... but, the more experienced VB riders put out enough attacking spirit to take the win with Erika Donald gliding across in style.

I made a silly little vid if you wanna watch it.

- - -
In the geezer race, all kinds a testicle juice was pumping through veins. Most the NorCal teams were present with EMC, CVC, and the Sierra Nevada boys particularly feisty. There were a couple of new groups i didn't recognize, too. Nice to see old fellas getting together to run the gauntlets, teamy-like.

Us BagBoys were only 3 in count, but it was a core group that raced prolly 800 crits together last year ... so, we just fell into REM sleep and dreamed ourselves up a win. Pasco was more than happy to do all the body work, punching away like a gawdamn 12-rounder gone to the scorecards. Me n' daPAB just followed the flurries and ended up sliding ourselves into a 1-3 combo.

Good way to start the season off ... especially against a motivated, hungry field.

- - -
In the prosey race, there were a good number of fast boys there, with the RHVillians running a nice sized unit (heh heh ... he said 'nice sized unit') for us to bash up against. Guikema went on the proactive list a good number of times but Bramlett looked to be entirely too comfortable in the pack for my tastes ... so, no way we were gonna let that come down to a field sprint if at all possible.

It was pretty much attack, counter attack the entire hour. The LandPark course is one of those venues that allows bucket fulls of recovery if you're taking tea and crumpets in the pack-draft. But, stick your nose out in the wind and try and ride 30mph out there ... and it takes a damn heavy toll on the January legs n' lungs.

Well, many a haymaker was thrown in the ring, but the knockout came damn late in the game with 3 of us finding our way to the line with only a few seconds to spare. CVC's Easterling was the dominate player in our trio of finishers. He had springy legs and it was a clear bet his acceleration was going to take out me and some big, strapping Davis kid named Tyler. I only know his name was Tyler (or was it Taylor) because he had about a dozen dainty lil' co-eds dancing around the course crooning out his name over and over again.

Hell yeah ... and a couple of them even gave the pack a nice Moon over MyHammy on turn 3 ... exposing a nice bit of fleshy cheer section to distract us from the pain'ervals (almost crashed half the field in observance ... but so damn worth it).

In the end, Easterling did take the win and the Davis kid took a well-earned 2nd. The kid rode out of his gourd to make breaks all race and it was nice to see that kind of youthful vigor.

anyway ... blah, blah, blah ... it was another coupla bike races.


and i loved every second of it.


Michael Hernandez

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