Riders: Chris Daggs, Skyler Bishop, Rob Carr, Zack Simkover, Jason King, Corey Ferrell, Jose Quintero, Alex Jarman.
Following the epic conditions of Saturday's Blvd. RR, the Red Trolley Criterium was held in good conditions. This was the first race of 2009 where the entire Swami's Developmental Elite Team lined up together at the start.
The event was maxed out with 120 Pro/1/2 men lining up for the 75 min race. Jelly Belly, Fly V Australia, Team Type 1 had full squads with Rock fielding a few riders as well. Zack, Daggs and Alex proved to be the most aggressive and active early in the race, covering everything that look dangerous and ensuring Swami's wasn't left out of anything promising. Alex covered a great move very early on; it was good to see a Swami in that one as all the pros were there. It came back after a few laps. Jose and Jason mixed it up as well. This was Jose's first race of the season; "I missed the speed" said Jose after the race-well there was plenty of that today! As the race wore on, the attrition weeded the field in half as continued attacks kept the pace consistently hard. After Corey's epic ride at Boulevard, he was understandably physically and mentally tired so he got the day off. Rob Carr had a rough day at the office and went down in a minor crash early in the race; he's fine but landed on some old wounds and dinged his pride.
Amazingly, no breaks were successful and as 5 to go was displayed we were all together. I've been suffering from pulled muscle in my back, and didn't expect to finish the race. Riding most of the race at the back, I wasn't privy to most of the early and mid race attacks, but in the closing laps I joined up with Daggs, Alex, Zack and Jason in our attempt to maintain our position near the front and contest what was guaranteed to be a fast, elbow banging sprint against a few of the top sprinters in the country including several current and past National Criterium Champions.
Alex and Daggs rode attentively in the closing laps staying near the front and actively covering each and every attack. A dangerous move with Brad Huff and Justin Williams as well as two Fly V Australia riders slipped off the front going into 3 to go, and the selection seemed to have been made. In a last ditch effort to keep Swami's in the race I bridged across bringing the field with me and keeping Alex and myself in the mix. I made a mistake as we started the bell lap, finding myself on the outside and getting swarmed up the inside. By the time I was able to slot back into the forward moving group Alex and I were twenty riders back and, at those speeds, were unable to move up anymore. I finished just inside the top 20, with Alex just behind me a few places further back.As my first race of the year, and the first race we've competed in as an entire team, I'm very happy with how we all rode and look forward to the next month of racing as we really start to gel as a team. This is going to be a great year!
Photo: Sky nailing a break back with 3 laps to go.
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