So what do you do when the guy you're working for at The Otter road race flats going into the last lap? You do what the VoMonster would do and attack. Today I went out with the sole intention of getting Carl the Ranger (probably the nicest Pegasaurus of them all--no disrespect to the rest of you blue clad winged horsies--but am I wrong?) onto the finishing climb with the bunch together. For the first couple of laps I just kind of tailgunned for a while waiting for the attrition to do it's thing. Eventually I moved forward when I sensed that something might get cooking. Sure enough, some people started dipping their toe in the water and occasionally we'd have somebody rolling off the front. Whenever it happened, I'd bridge up with Carl or slowly drag the peloton back. After the fifth or sixth time, I was starting to get the stink eye and even had a couple of snidely whiplash comments leveled my way, but what are you going to do? For those of you unawares, Carl is a great climber. He works on Mt. Diablo and knows everyone that climbs up that thing on a regular basis. He always has something positive to say to everyone he comes across. He's the kind of guy that you can really bury it for and I knew he could finish the thing off if I could get him there. So into the last lap we go and about half way up a pretty decent climb...no Carl. Unusual for he would always be in the top five each time up. So I dropped back a few riders...no Carl. A few more riders and still no Carl. I finally got to the end of the line and some Touchstone guy was dangling off the back. "Have you seen another Pegasus rider back there," I ask. He looks at me through vacant eyes and gently shakes his head. I do a full blown head turn and he's not there. Gone. Poof. Race plan down the drain. I crest the hill and I wonder what the heck I should do. I could chill and wait for the finishing climb and ply my wares. I'm not climbing horribly and maybe I can beat half these guys, I think. Then, similar to a scene straight out of Animal House, Mike Vomund shows up on my shoulder. "You're thinking of sitting on aren't 'cha," he says to me. "Yeah, kinda," I mutter through labored breath. "Where'd that get you two years ago," he asks already knowing the answer. I look straight ahead alarmed that this conversation is even happening. "I'd attack," he says. And so I go. I mean what the hell. I tried last year and got a couple of guys to come out and it almost worked. So I shoot up the left and as I near the front I see this guy Bret who rides the HOP ride on Saturdays and is really strong. I give him a shout out as I rip by. Into my effort I give a peek back and nothing happening. It's now or never so I put it in time trial mode and throw everything at it. The VoMonster still perched on my shoulder now giggling with delight and challenging me to go faster. Why not? I made it the most of the way around the lap finally getting caught as we crested the last hill. On the descent to the finishing climb, I look over and the VoMonster is yawning. And I attack again. I was through the hard right at the bottom in first but right behind me was the field. Game over. I sat on the back of the pack up the start of the climb and moved around popped riders, but slowly the faster climbers moved away. Inevitable, I guess. I was able to bring it home in 15th. All in all, had a real good time and with a little better luck, maybe our plan could have delivered Carl to the victory. That's racing. Tomorrow I'm pre-riding the MTB course with the Griffociraptor so I'll check in with some pics of the course. Hope you are well.

Johnny GoFast