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Smitty Wins in Chico!!!!!

June 30, 2010 · Posted in Uncategorized 

Chico Stage Race   6/26-27

Written by Platinum rider Steve Smith

The race couldn’t have been any hotter unless it was held on the surface of the sun.  The RR was 90 miles, rolling hills, with a four mile stretch of gravel.  My Garmin read a temperature of 108 at one point.  We had a really small field and a break of three quickly went after only five miles or so.  I bridged up with one other guy after 10 miles.  Various combinations of riders came and went in our little group, but with 15 miles to go, there were six of us left.  In the rollers before the gravel, I attacked and took two with me.  We dropped one in the gravel section and as soon as we hit the pavement in the final five mile run-in to the finish, I dropped the last guy for a long solo slog to the finish.  I finished 90 seconds up on 2nd place and 3:20 up on 3rd.  I also won the 5sec time bonus at the end of the first lap and took another 20sec bonus for the win.

Stage 2 was 10mi flat TT.  2nd place guy is known as a good TT’er and I’m not, so I was nervous about losing my lead.  Despite a really horrible ride, I finished with the exact same time as he did, so my lead was pretty secure.  However, the 3rd place guy won the TT and bested my time by 1:40.  This narrowed the gap between 2nd and 3rd to only 19 seconds. 

With time bonuses of 20 and 10 seconds in the crit for 1st an 2nd, there was a fun battle between those two guys in the 6-corner downtown crit.  My job was to sit on wheels and not crash, which I managed to do successfully.  The whole thing turned into a snooze when 2nd place guy’s two teammates attacked and lapped the field thereby neutralizing the finish time bonuses.  I think I rolled across the line in last place because that’s the kind of classy guy I am.  After the race, it was so hot that we all went and stood in a fountain while they tallied the results. 

Despite the really low turnout across all categories, it was a great race.  They should have a better spot on the calendar next season and it would be worth a trip to a really pretty part of the state.

Results:

Steve Smith    1st GC     Cat 3

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