And on the Homefront or So You Had a Bad Day

Crapperapolis was, well, crappy... can't rightly remember a weekend where the kiddos got so manhandled. The only bright spot was Garden's ride, 3rd in the 15/16 race. Otherwise the list of carnage follows:

The Tapinator... one lap in the 15/16's
Ian McPherson... one lap in the 17/18's
Laundry... one lap in the 15/16's
The Staz... two laps in the 17/18's
AWfoSho... popped on the last climb in the 17/18's
Davitamon... popped on the last climb in the 17/18's
Todd Stone... popped on the last climb in the 17/18's
El Gigante... popped on the first climb in the 15/16's
Dishes... succumbed to attacks on the plateau in between the climbs

in all serious... I was witness to some of the most negative racing I've ever seen... once AWfoSho and Davitamon were out of the lead group, nobody was willing to stick their nose into the wind... kuddos to Spiney's Joe Trujillo who rolled off the front and was never seen again... but shame on the rest of the boys. The script went something like this... rider A attacks and goes full gas for 50 meters, then looks ack and realizes somebody is on his wheel. He promptly sits up and the pace goes from 25mph to 10 mph instantly as riders B, and C who have covered the attack are unwilling to continue it despite the fact that they have gapped off riders D, E, and F... Roll along at 10 mph for a bit, shake up the riders and repeat... Cal Giant's Jesse Moore called me after the race to ask if the juniors were actually racing at Copperopolis, because it looked to him like they were just out for a Saturday ride... might as well line all the kids up 50 meters from the finish and have them sprint. Seems like that's what they all wanted.

And... It was funny watching the racing while AWfoSho and Davitamon were still in the group. Seemed like everybody was looking at DBCJRT to do all the work. Looked something like this: AMD's Ben Barse-Rhyne is up the road about 1 minute. Nobody is willing to stick their nose in the wind to bring him back except AWfoSho... When he does, the pace goes up, but as soon as he pulls off it drops to that 10-15 mph Saturday ride... In the mean time, the kidlets are all handing it to DBCJRT... "Come on Davis, aren't you gonna bring it back?" Finally fed up with all the negativity, AWfoSho attacks the group in an attempt to bridge. Immediately, the group comes to life and kids are on the front who haven't seen the wind all day... maybe all season. I smell a marked man... especially when attacks by Spine, BMG, and Tieni Duro went unchased...

Maybe we've earned the reputation of the team to beat... the team to watch... the team that should take all the responsibility in a race... but on this day, everybody but Garden had a bad day.

Good ride Garden!