He put's the 'Master' in Master-san

Saturday, March 15th will forever be known as the day Steve Masterson tried killed me (and Marc and Zack and Jose). He almost succeeded, but we were able to withstand the onslaught of attacks during this Master-class display of power which was so Master-fully orchestrated.


We showed up @ Nytro to ride with the club. Everyone was a bit tired from the Del Mar Crit- like waaaaay tired. A light workout was in order. Steve was sporting his new Cannondale Super Six and ridin' high after his podium appearance at Del Mar.

In an exhibition of Team Discovery-like control; the Swami's Cat 4 squad placed a Vice Grip on the front of the field, refusing to back down. Albert, Troy, Steve, Fred Muir, Pascal "The Hammer of Wallonie" Bonaventure, Andy "Way Above" Parr, Rich Sarles, Cam Sanders, and Bob Rosemeyer (forgiveness for anyone forgotten) threw down! After Master-san's Cipo-esque sprint (see below) 4 more Swami's rounded out the top 11. Awesome!

So we start rolling to San Elijo and I fell terrible- like my door mat! I'd been tired since the crit, but it seemed worse today! As we climbed in to San Elijo I was huffin and puffin...and Steve rolls by like Contador. Then after we round the corner and come to the next climb he puts in a bit of a dig! Immediately Zack (who was up front) switches from 'Chill Mode' to 'Robo-domestique/Hunt/Attack/Destroy Mode'-and this is really my fault as I drilled into diminutive Zack that when attacks go you must follow and counter ALWAYS! So the hammer gets dropped. Now Jose starts going for it-he's having PTSD flashbacks to winning the KOM in Tour of Northwestern Venezuela. And now the other guys are joining in. I made a nice move on the descent and sprinted out of the corner only to get severe leg lock and nearly get dropped! Thru the park Steve puts in a dig on the climb. Owwww. "Seriously, whats wrong with me today," I think out loud. At this point the madness must be stopped. I went to the front and tried to set some kinda tempo for the church sprint. Over some seemingly minor rise I think I bonked and someone launched the sprint. I limped home, but watched Steve nearly upset Zack in the all important church sprint. Thank you Buddha for helping Zack win. I barely make it to the church. Steve is chatting away looking as fresh as the day he showed up at UCSB and Marc, Jose, Zack, and I all look pale and clammy! We comiserated about our frail aching bodies and determined that there would be no long loop today-in fact if someone wanted to ride back to the coast and get a car we would wait at the church for that person and buy them dinner. We were hurtin pups. The ride left without me as I waited for Skyler (who did the A ride and met up with us) and we spun home. It felt like we could have walked faster! I checked my Polar CS400 for the average speed and it showed a whooping 13.5mph when I got home. Poor Skyler was equally wasted. I think he stopped along the road in Rancho Santa Fe and took a nap after we split up. I heard that Steve continued to put the wood to the ride on the way back to the coast. I think next time I'll just do the Swami's A ride-at least I expect that one will hurt!

Ride Epilogue: upon arriving back to Casa Daggs I napped for 4 hours!

Chris