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 After a few good training rides after Central Valley we loaded up the Jittery Joe’s van and headed up the 57 to the San Dimas Stage Race. The team, Willo, Hoppy, Shirl, Cesar, Tommy and myself had all taken advantage of the good weather here in San Diego to get in some decent K’s in the week before San Dimas, we hit the hills and also did a nice recovery ride down to the coast. Shorts and Jerseys were all that was necessary in the clothing department thanks to the 70+ sunshine.

After a 2 hour or so drive along some boring freeway we arrived for the start of the race. San Dimas consisted of an uphill prologue, a road course, and a crit. In the uphill tt, the first for the year, all the guys did their job. The hill was in quite a nice area, but the air quality was less than desirable. There was a bit of confusion as to Cesar’s start time, there had been a bib shuffle at the registration and this in turn caused a misinterpretation for the start of Cesar’s TT. Amid all the confusion Cesar was told to “GO!”, and so he did just that. By the end of the day they had classified Cesar 2nd on GC.
With no such dramas for Neil, he put in a great ride to take 4th on the stage…..2nd and 4th on GC……or so we thought! We had a meeting that night to be aggressive and try to get in the moves in the road race. Team BMC had the yellow jersey and due to the time bonuses, would probably want a group up the road to take the bonus seconds.

On arrival at the stage 2 start we were presented with a revised results sheet from the TT. Cesar had been dropped from 2nd to 4th, therefore Neil had been bumped up into 3rd. So although it ruffled our feathers it did not change our plan of attack, which was to attack. On the road course, 10 laps of a 7 mile loop, there was a power climb of around 1km. The racing was flat out from the start and all the boys were trying to get into moves. Willo and Neil had success in making a break, only to be reeled in by BMC who were riding cohesively on the front. We were all staying towards the front, trying to sit just behind the yellow jersey.

Our first bit of bad luck happened at the feed zone when Willo dropped his chain. I dropped back to help and we were soon back in the peloton. After about 70km of the race there was a crash towards the front of the bunch. This crash brought down Hoppy. Our second bout of bad luck for the day. BMC took advantage of the situation and laid down some smack and on the climb, some 2km later, the main split of the day occurred.

Cesar and Neil both made the front split, 4 BMC, 1 Navigators, 2 Jittery Joe’s. Enter bad luck numbers 3 and 4. Cesar punctures at the top of the hill. No Mavic support in site due to the melee which preceded the climb, Cesar was forced to drop out of the break and wait for a wheel change. Willo stepped in and ripped his rear wheel out and threw it into Cesar’s bike. He was on his way again, but only made it back to the second group. Whilst all of this was happening, and not 2km down the road, Neil had encountered the same misfortune. He received a spare wheel, but he was also forced to watch the break go up the road.

So, at the end of the day we had dropped out of contention for GC, had 1 mechanical, 2 flats and a crash. It was then that I was beginning to think that my bib number had had a hand in this twist of fate. I had number 13! After a nice meal out and our sorrow replaced with enthusiasm we planned to just be aggressive in the crit, and if there was no breakaway we would lead out Hoppy for the bunch kick. We figured that we had had our fair share of dark clouds, and that at least it was not our legs that were putting us in difficult situations.

The crit was on a nice course with a slight uphill on the back straight, and a downhill with a right hander coming into the finish. Once again it was on from the gun. We were all covering moves and eventually we put three riders in the break of 12. Cesar, Willo and Neil all made the break and set about making the gap count. This was only lap 5, about 10 minutes into the 1 hour 30 minute race. A few riders tried to bridge up, but BMC controlled the bunch and brought back any further moves off the front whilst holding the gap at around 1 minute for the entire race. As we were coming into the final 20 minutes the gap began to drop. The main peloton, which contained Hoppy, Tommy and myself all tucked away in about 8th wheel, could now see the breakaway coming back. It would be touch and go.

We were sitting in a great position. 3 guys in the front, and 2 guys left to help Hoppy should it come back for a bunch sprint. With 4 laps to go the break was only 15 to 20 seconds ahead. Cesar hit out from the break and stole a march on all. With 1 lap to go it looked as though it was all going to come back together. As we flew down the straight for the last time and headed into the final turn we began the sprint, which had almost latched onto the back of the break. The breakaway held off the hard charging bunch by about 5 seconds. But the ride of the day had gone to Cesar who managed to hold everyone at bay. After attacking with 4 laps to go, he steadily held his gap to take the win. His first for the year, and also the first victory for Jittery Joe’s for 2007. There was a lot of cheering after the finish. Cesar had taken the victory, Neil had come in 4th and Willo had taken out 5th place.

Great job by the team and hopefully we will carry it over into Redlands this week.

Cody

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