WATSONVILLE CRITERIUM

Course: L-shaped with a pleasant hill at the finish line. Lots of fun cornering with potholes and bot dots. 34 laps on a 3/4 mile course.
Weather: abnormally hot-85 degrees.
Field: 20 to 25 many I had never seen before. 3 PABWs, Tait of McGuire, Corolla of Alto Velo, Giant Strawberry gals, etc.

I felt strong warming up on the trainer. I attributed it to last week's Cascade Classic. It was either that, the delicious breakfast I made: perfect dippable eggs-over-easy, TJs chicken sausage, and wheat toast, or Floyd's victory in the Tour's most impressive stage EVER. Whatever it was, my goal was to attack and get in a break, if not a solo victory. Maybe it was the epic Landis stage.
At the start, I positioned myself to jump from the line and power the hill. I stayed in the top 5 the first few laps. PABW attacked for the first prime; I stayed with the group and we chased her back. We meandered though the course a few more laps at a decent pace, dodging holes and uneven pavement, and powering up the little hill. Still, I was feeling good and kept my position. At about lap 5, I turned and there were only eight of us left in the front. By half-way we had six, three PABW girls, Tait, Corolla and myself. I was surprised.
PABW rode a perfect race from then on. Tait and I chatted about helping each other out, but PABW had the numbers and were racing smart. Their three riders attacked for primes and made us chase over and over again. I put in a few attacks myself to get ahead with just one PABW rider so I would have a better chance at the end if it came to a sprint. But the wind was strong and so were Corolla and Tait. We could not shake each other and ended up noodling around slowly counting down the laps. I found myself whistling at one point for amusement. With two-to-go, PABW put in an attack. We caught the rider who jumped and it was hard to the finish. Jenny (fellow Cal Poly alum) of PABW took the sprint, Tait second, and I was fourth. Boy, I needed a teammate at this one! Nicely executed PABW. Kristina