Redlands Wrap, Part II

After the tough Beaumont circuit, we were down to five riders for the crit. Adam's presence would be sorely missed on the technical and demanding course, which he had found success at last year.

David, Tom, and Eric rode well all day, with David getting some time off the front as well as a couple of primes. In the finale, David and Eric stuck it out during Toyota's ferocious leadout to pull off two Top 20s - 13th and 15th.

The final day Sunset Loop circuit is by most accounts the hardest race of the year, and of this hardest race of the year, the approach to the first climb and the first time up the climb are some of the hardest and most critical moments we'll come across in 2008.

With that in mind, you can understand how disappointing and frustrating it was when three of us went down in a wreck on the APPROACH to the circuit maybe 15 minutes into the race, probably more like 10. Daniel, Tom, and I went down as we were starting to get together at the front to get ready for the awful first climb. Somewhere towards the front of the field people started falling and unfortunately we were in the middle of it. By the time we were up and ready, the race was over for us.

Eric and David made it through just fine though and both started the climb in great position. Neither were able to make the front group of 40ish, but David managed the 2nd group, while Eric got into the 3rd. Eric called it a day about halfway through and got his pro-rated time for a good finish to his first ever Redlands, while David managed to make it all the way through for something one might call a 'character building experience.'

Overall, Redlands was a good one for us. We are all looking forward to a little rest this week and then hopefully something good in Ojai next Sunday at the Garrett Lemire GP.