Photo courtesy of Tom Craddock
Pace Bend, a race notorious for not suiting a break-away, and ending in a dangerous bunch sprint. This wasn’t the case last weekend though. The morning started off with Joseph arriving at my apartment early Sunday morning. The lactic acid from the prior days tough race was tingling in my legs, along with the anxious hope in my chest at the thought of a podium finish in one of the state’s most well known races. After a fairly ordinary start, with a few moves unsuccessfully trying to get up the road, a group of ~10 guys rolled off the front. Having a ten second advantage on the filed, I decided to bridge to it, in the hopes of staying away. After a few reshuffles, dangling off the front of the peloton, Brant Speed (Team Hotel San Jose), Thacker Reeves (Garmin Transitions), and myself decided to “pull a fast one” on the chasers and put in a few strong digs. Around mile 15 of the 80 mile race and working hard together with our partners for the day (including representatives from Bike Barn, AT&T, Austin Bikes, Metro VW, Velossimo, and ALS-C3) the break got some momentum and eventually put in 5 minutes time to the chasing peloton. Around mile 60, only 7 of the original 12 men were left. With 12 miles left in the race Ryan McFeely (Team ALS-C3) attacked with Brant Speed following. Thacker, David Arteaga (Velossimo), and I stared at each other a little too long trying to make the others bridge the gap. The move worked, leaving the race for third between the three of us and Andrew Gonzales (Metro VW). I attacked through the feed zone with ~4 miles to go and shed Andrew, leaving only Thacker and David to contest against. After slew of attacks, counters, and cat and mouse tactics, Thacker jumped 2km from the finish. He was brought back by David and I countered. Eventually getting brought back and pinned in front of my two break away companions, forced to lead out the sprint. Thacker ended up taking 3rd and David 4th, leaving me with 5th place the 2010 addition of Pace Bend. My data file can be found at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/25483636
