Squad: Sky, Zack, Alex, Jason, Pascal, Orion Berryman, and myself.
Goal: Redemption
The Barrio Logan GP/SLR RR is my favorite race weekend of the year. These are two of the best courses in SoCal (anywhere for that matter). It's a classic Crit/RR weekend, reminiscent of the races I did growing up in the Midwest. And if I had to pick one race of the entire season to do well in, I'd pick SLR (or Nationals, but Nationals can be a crapshoot). But this year I wasn't expecting much for SLR even with the new course-sure there was less climbing, but that just means we'll go faster on the climbs! I hadn't been doing much climbing in training lately so I was planning on a supporting role at SLR. I was bummed after Barrio and so was the rest of the team; that one seems to escape us every year. The saying goes "You're only as good as your last result" and after Barrio that was 21st and missing the break! The Swamis DET is better than that; everyone was determined to put Swamis back to the top of the results sheet at San Luis Rey.
Our pre-race meeting was quick: be aggressive and make the breaks! We had many Swamis feeding us: Gary and Luuuuuke Emerson, Kevin Davenport, Fred Muir (who drank half our beer), and many others. The feeds and cheers were awesome. Behind every good team is a good support system and the Swamis were tip top in that area Sunday.
From the gun an attack went. Two riders rolled away and no one chased. Zack took over to cover it and soon it was Zack leading the race. A lap later another group took off and Alex covered that. Perfect. Jason has been riding really well and is our ace climber. His job was to follow Adam Livingston. Earlier in the week Adam told me he was skipping Barrio to win SLR. Jason rode great and did his job to perfection; Adam was very aggressive in the early laps and Jason was right there. Finally Rock Racing decided to shutdwon Alex and Zack's break. The race officals threatened to neutralize the 1/2 field if we got caught by the master 35+ field. If that happened the break would get a huge gap and our race would be over. Good for Swamis, but bad for Rock! They put the hammer down for a lap and brought the break back.
We passed the halfway mark and the field was more or less intact. Two riders had jumped away. Guys were tired. I had been feeling strong and decided to save my legs for the finale to help Jason or do something myself. As we neared the feed zone the 4th time a strong group attacked and I was in a perfect position to go with them. Before I knew it we'd caught the lead duo and put a good gap into the field. I had been feeling really good on the climbs and was usually in the big ring; I could tell I was on a good day so now I had to finish it off for the team. We motored for the next couple laps: we were doing 27-30mph on the flats and 14-17mph on the climbs! On the last lap we got word our gap was close to 2mins. I was starting to feel crampy so I drank up and sat on as much as I could. I had been working a fair share, but 2 guys had been sitting the whole time. Now it was my turn to sit. We started attacking each other in the valley on the way to the turnaround. We traded attacks but everyone was saving it for the final climb. After the corner more attacks came in the tailwind. Rudy from Liquid Fitness, attacked on the first ramp and our group split. We came back together at the base of the main climb and then Nic Sanderson from Rock attacked and shattered the group. Of course the two wheelsuckers had the juice to go with him and so did Rudy. My legs were locking; I quickly decided that I'd better just ride my best pace to the top. I didn't feel too bad, but there was no attacking left in my legs. I kept the pressure on and was soooo relieved to see the cones for the finish. The chasers were nowhere in sight so I had time to enjoy a nice hard fought result. I ended up 8th, not too bad at all.
The field came through soon and most of the guys were in there with Pascal mixing it up for 19th. The guys were awesome today. It was really awesome to have Swamis yelling for us all day.
Thanks Gurus. I'll see you on the road.
Chris Daggs
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