In the photo: Trevor Niblock
Written by Trevor.
It started with a 3.20a alarm clock to be ready for the legend, Theo, at 4am! You can only imagine the smiles from my finance, Lana, 11 days out from our wedding! After doubling our usual dose of Equator coffee, we headed off.
The plan going into the road race (RR) was for the 3 RR focused guys to stay near the front, imaginative, I know. Michael, Trevor and Alex had hopes for the RR with Jungho our bullet in the crit. Marco, despite a head cold, was ready to improve fitness and use the pollen of Chico to clear his headcold!
Tactics for RR worked fine, gravel n all, until there was a crash in the top 5 wheels. Trevor was forced to bunny hop a lad stretched out on the group - literally a bunny hop. It was his rib cage and out over the handle bars, or go airborne. Michael was forced to a complete stop, unclip and all before he got going. Rest of the crew survived too. Lead pack of 3 got away and stayed away. Trevor, Alex and Michael gave what turned out to be a battle of attrition in the last 10 miles of the RR. We landed Trevor in 7th 75 seconds down on 1 in GC, followed by Michael, Alex and Jungho all clawing and time trialing their way back into the top 30 after the crash.
Straight to the Sierra Nevada brewing company – they say its great for the dust from the gravel, oh and it’s a huge attraction. So, why not? After a sneaky few there, it was on to the Hot Tub @ the TM Masters pad (a former frat house mind you) where some of us were staying for a few local (additional) IPA’s-coupled nicely with our Osmo rehydration.
Crit plan was to get or, stay, near Jungho in the last 3/4 laps to help him get a good result. 30 mins goes fast with all the surging and hammering ON (yeah it should be off) the brakes. Didn’t quite work out, but Jungho and Trevor managed top 20. All riders safe in the crit, which is always a great result.
Finishing with a TT is always the best craic, esp. when Peter is back in Ireland, already on the Guinness, asking, every 15 mins, for updates. Ask Micky, he’ll tell ya. On with our Capo speedsuits to try and hide the guts n love handles. We had Trevor at 7in GC but a scary 55 seconds off the podium. We were hoping for a big TT’s from Alex, Michael and Trevor – who didn’t disappoint. We had an outstanding TT with Trevor, Alex, Michael and Jungho in 4th, 6th, 8th and 21st respectively. Despite a wait of 2.5 hours for the results, Chico organizers put on their usual excellent show. Mikes Bikes scored a step on the podium with Trevor coming in 3rd in GC. Thanks to MB Masterss for all their advice throughout the race.
We wouldn’t nearly look as good (bless our hearts) or perform nearly as well without the help from the following legends: Mike’s Bikes, Equator Coffees, Specialized Bikes, Violich Farms, Osmo Nutrition, Probar, Smith Optics, Toyota, Bikesmart, and Capo for the best skinsuit out there.
