Robert Winder

With all the oldies, but still the best teams out for the fun of the downtown SF experience it felt disconcerting to be on the line with only one other team mate. Its been a familiar story this year.

Me and Chris C had talked, and both agreed to be attentive, hooking up with moves as they’d gone. We couldn’t have done much more with Morgan Stanley, Spine, Safeway, AMD, EMC out in force.

One after another the big teams hit the front with attacks going constantly. A couple of moves got away, and with a late season stupor I hit the front to bring back one of the moves, up the Vallejo and down Sansome back to Battery before my legs blew up and Pasco finished off the chase on Sansome.

Into the final couple of laps and I held a good position and knew that holding the wheel was critical for a high finish. Second to last time up Vallejo and all the crashing sound of a big field pile up made sure that the front group hit it hard down Sansome. All strung out as we headed for the left/right before Vallejo for one last time and there was a 2nd crashing sound, this time even louder. Being in the right place for once felt great, but it only worked thanks to Bosch putting the hammer down and keeping it safe. The AMD train was moving too quickly to jump on the back of it, that was the move right there and if I’d not been so cross-eyed then I might’ve attempted to get on terms down Sansome.

I was overgeared for the sprint, should’ve gone with the 12 instead of the 11, but held my own for sixth. Call it luck, call it fate, just call it to my face. I’m happy with that given my lack of form over the last couple of weeks.