Day 1 was the Paskenta Road Race course, a 45 mile loop, mostly flat with some rollers and a 4 mile stretch of gravel. Right from the gun two guys attacked off the front and the field wasn't entirely eager to chase them back. A little more than halfway through the course Brasel went on the attack and had a few guys with him. I dutifully followed wheels and contributed nothing and over the course of a couple miles this shattered the field. Once I was satisfied I threw in and made it to the lead group, making it 7 guys chasing the original 2 off the front. We caught to 2 leaders and only one could hang on with us and this was the selection before the gravel. I figured I was safe and sat at the back through this, but that turned out to be a mistake because even with a small group I was swerving and braking too much and lost contact. Brasel started his sprint a little early but snagged 7th and I was not caught by the group behind, so I held onto 8th. All in all, not a bad day.
Day 2 was a downtown crit in Chico and it was fun. The plan was for Brasel to lead me to the front with 2 laps to go, but as it turned out Brasel had some early umph and I sat up at just the right time for him to get into a small breakaway. Just about every team was represented and Schuyler was doing some great blocking for Rio Strada. At some point 3 of the 6 break mates fell off and were swallowed up but Brasel was committed and ended up taking 2nd and gaining some time in GC, IN A CRIT! Pretty sweet.
Not much to say about the Time Trial except that I appear to be sucking a little less at this. I definitely felt the pain of not having the right geometry, since I basically threw bars on and wore a TT helmet. Brasel had a phenomenal TT, but unfortunately so did 2 other guys. He ended up 2nd overall on GC and I held on for 10th. Pretty fun weekend.
Here's a pic of Brasel crushing it.
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And here's a pic showing how much draft I get off of Brasel :)
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