Big Doings for the Men in Black

Berkeley Hills Road Race
Berkeley, CA
5/12/2007
Dan Martin (1), Chris Wire (4), Michael Hernandez (5), Robert Pasco, Ronald Reade, Reed Maxwell

It looked like the winning move had gone up the road with Chris Wire, AMD's Craig Roemer, and Spine's Colin Cooper. A huge effort by several teams managed to reel them in just after the dam on the final lap. Zteam's Phipps launched an attack which Daniel Martin jumped on with AMD's Metcalfe in tow. The three got a sizable gap and prepared for the duel that would take place on Papa Bear. Phipps put forth a huge effort with Metcalfe on his wheel and Daniel sitting in the catbird's seat. Though an excellent climber, Phipps was unable to drop the other two. Metcalfe put the pressure on through the feedzone but it wasn't enough. Daniel came by him at the finish for the win. Meanwhile, back in the pack, Chris and Mike were able to break free with a group of 5 or 6. The two of them tag teamed the rest and took the next two finishing positions for fourth and fifth.

Golden State Criterium
Sacramento, CA
5/13/2007
Dan Martin (1), Roger Bennett (3), Robert Pasco, Ronald Reade

About 20 minutes in it got pretty hard and strung out, guys were taking fliers and the speed was always fast. A couple of hard surges into the head wind took the stuff out of everyone and going into the tailwind it was just too rip for a surge. Knowing the dangerous part of the course from the P/1/2 helped and Dan Martin came out of the corner going into the tailwind full gas. About 5 escaped and they caught the solo EMC up the road quickly. Into the head wind, things were dying in the break and Jason Dunlap (Sierra Nevada) hit it hard. Dan waited and then jumped across, another rider with him. That was it, a 3-man break. After a few laps, Dan realized it was his break to win, the guys were on edge, but they were still pulling away from the field. The break grew up to 35 seconds and then the lap cards appeared (12 to go). Dan kept the pressure on but not enough to drop the others, he didn't want their teammates chasing just yet. The rest of the MIB were doing some great covering back in the field and nothing got up to the break. With 8 to go Jason fell off in the tail-wind section (the gap was down to 20 sec). Only two left in the break. 4 to go and the gap was 15 seconds, the break could feel them breathing down their necks. Going across the S/F with 3 to go a solo Rio Strata guy was attempting to bridge up with Joe Olivera close behind. For Dan it was now or never, he hit it full gas and broke away solo before they made contact. Rio Strata made it to the wheel of Dan's break mate. Dan opened up again and coming across the S/F with 1 to go he had at least 12 seconds on the chasing field. Time to suck it up and feel the pain! Last turn into the tailwind, full on 2 minute interval style. Looking back he can see Vince digging deep to reach him with Robert on his wheel. So much for an interval, now it's full on out of the saddle sprint with 800m to go. Getting to the next to the last corner a quick look back and there is no Vince or Robert. The pack is back about 5 seconds and he knows he's got it. Last corner and he started with a full sprint just in case, but had enough room to ease up and cheerish the win. Roger duked it out in the field sprint and took second, for a third place finish overall.

Steinbeck Country Oldtown Criterium
Salinas, CA
5/13/2007
Chris Wire (4), Kyle Glerum (5), Jeff Poulsen (6), Patrick Tafoya (8), Andrew Nevitt

We had a lot of hard racing at Salinas; it is a great course, kind of like Suisun crit, with a strong tailwind/headwind on the long sections. In the 35+, Kyle rolled a solo break about 4 laps into the race for a whole bunch of laps early on, making Morgan Stanley do quite a bit of chasing. In the ensuing counters, we rolled the final break with Dirk Copeland, Mark Noble, Chris Wire, Scott Derdenger and then Kyle bridged up to it. The break rolled fast and hard from then on. It was a break of sprinters so there was not much we could do to slow it down; it was a good sprint for Chris and he felt really good. We knew if we got caught we had two strong sprinters, Jeff Poulsen and Patrick Tafoya in the field rested and ready to counter. Setting up Chris for the win, he rested the last 3 laps, and Kyle took a few extra pulls and then led from 1 to go down the backstretch. Chris was really rested and ready to give it a go but apparently the Sea Otter ghost is still lingering with him and as he jumped around the last corner on Mark's wheel he somehow pulled his foot out of his pedal. He got back in, tried to catch up, almost got back to Scott, but fell short at 4th. Kyle was 5th, Jeff brought home the FS for 6th, Pat 8th, Andrew 11th and a bunch of primes on top of it all.

Pat was up there in the 45's and Chris was 10th in the P/1/2. We won the overall mens category which was good for a case of wine. It was a good day of racing for the third of the team in Salinas (not quite as good as for the guys in Sacramento though!).

*photo credit Biker Jun