Suisun Harbor Criterium

Suisun Harbor Criterium
Teammates: Aaron, Carmi, Dino, Murat and myself
Place: Carmi WON

We had a great day last Sunday.

Murat started it off with a stellar performance during the Masters 3/4/5 race. He was in two very good looking breakaways...the second one was a 3-man that was chasing after a solo rider. That solo guy stuck it to the finish and Murat took 2nd.

Immediately after that race, he lined up with the rest of us for our 40 lap category 3 race. I was going to just sit back for a while and feel it out. This was a very short course (1/2 mile, 4-turns) and I knew it would be fast and thought it would also be tough to move up, so I planned on moving up about 1/2 way through the race.

Aaron started it off with a breakaway. I'm not sure how many guys were in that one, but it seemed pretty strong.

Unfortunately, that got caught.

Fortunately, it was caught by another break that had Carmi in it...this one stuck it to the finish.

Aaron, Dino, Murat and I tried our best to control the front so that Carmi's break would stick. (I need to mention that Carmi was out in a 40-mile breakaway the day prior at the Winters RR...he's riding very strong recently!)

I wasn't too motivated for the field sprint since there were 7 guys in Carmi's break, but I still wanted to test myself out and see how I was fitness-wise after the time off. I moved up and got into position behind Aaron. I knew Dino was somewhere close behind and was hoping he would find my wheel. I came into turn 4 a bit further back than I would have liked to be and pulled in 10th in the field (17th overall).

While taking our cool-down lap, we talked about the fact that we at least had Carmi in the break and were hoping he did well in the end. As we approached him at the start/finish line, he let off a giant grin and showed us one finger (not the middle). Not only did he win, but he grabbed 2 primes along the way!

We all cheered, hugged and sang jolly songs, while lifting him off his bike and carrying him away (just kidding).

Here's our little Carmi (18-year old boy-wonder...now a man) doing his post-race interview.