By Jim Swigart
I will pitch in on the Bull Dog recap - wave 4 was 50+ in 5yr increments so we had about 120+ riders at the start. Beautiful morning for a race and its always a fun ride in Pendelton. We do so many crits in SoCal, I really enjoy the chance for a RR.So, a number of the big dogs (Pollock, Springer, etc) were in Vegas for the weekend and the usual UCCyclery/SDBC/Citrus Valley Velo force was thinned out a bit. I hooked up with fellow SDBC riders Mark Wisnosky and Don Kimper and Steve Borer (ex SDBC, now traitorous Citrus Valley Velo!) at the start. This can be a sketchy race as half the field seems to be not too experienced. I remembered from last year that "in back is not where it's at" so we decided to press at the front to keep it honest. Others had the same idea and we kept the pace a little quicker on the way out to the "hill of truth" at mile 10. Still, whenever it slowed, the field bunched up and it was messy. So, lining up for the left hand turn up the hill, our group was in the top 20. Kimper was a bit ahead so I rode with Steve up the first part of the climb. Hooked up with Mark half way up the climb then came together with Don Kemper about 2/3 up the hill. I was getting a second wind so I led out with Don and we gapped up to the next group at the crest of the hill. I dropped my chain going into the big ring and almost gapped back but we were all together for the decent. About 10 of us worked pretty well for a couple miles. We could see a group up the road but no one could get it organized for a chase. In fact, with five miles to go, we let some riders come back up to us and our small group was now about 20 guys - and no one seemed to be able to control it. Small surges then back together again. Don and I hung out near the front of the group. I sensed it would come down to either a break with a mile to go or a mad dash through the parking lot to the finish. Well, the pace just slowly picked up and you had to be in the top 10 going into the left hand turn heading to the finish. I got inside and was OK. Don got an outside line but was pushed out into the curb - what a mess. He probably had a top three finish going before that. I went outside on the next right turn and jumped on it for the 150 yards to the finish line. I must have passed four guys who either didn't know where the line was or just didn't want to sprint. I came across near the head of our group but not clear where I had finished. We never caught the lead group of 10 riders and if they had some 55+ guys I would have been down the list. As it turns out, only one guy 55+ was in the lead group (Fernan Lozano) and the second 55+ (David Simard) was 1 second in front of me. I was third with three more 55+ all within 4 seconds of my finish.Not often I am on the podium and so it was great fun.Mark Wisnosky and Steve Borer rolled in in 8th and 9th so we had 3 in the top 10 55+. Kimper got 6th in 60+ but was only 5 seconds out of second place - would have been top three but for the squeeze play near the finish. Jim Ring (SDBC 60+) was 9th.Overall great time!!!! I checked last years times and the pack was 2 to 3 minutes faster so must have strung it out better. Too bad no SoCal points as I seem to do better here than in the flat crits!!
Link to video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji1JWGEegbI
Thanks to Ben Weaver for vid. He wore the video cam.
Full results - http://www.y-events.com/09cpbikeciv.htm
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