2014 Beverly Gran Prix

[Jacob]

Cat. 4 race with Nolan and Scott C.

I was watching two guys in this race. For reasons that will eventually be obvious, I'll refer to them as 1 and 2. Roughly halfway through, one guy went off in a break, and then a group of two including 2 bridged up to him. 1 and I moved to the front of the pack and did some work to close the gap. I did a short pull and a medium length pull. I came close to blowing up and had to dig deep to hold on to the tail of the front group. We brought back the break with a few laps to go. I was in the first 10 wheels on the final lap. On turn 4, the guy in front of me took out the guy behind me; I escaped to the inside somehow. Last year I got caught out around that point and struggled to keep in contact on the back stretch. I did much better there this year and was comfortably on 2's wheel coming around the soft turn 5. 1 had a lead out man who sprinted for the corner then peeled off to the left before the corner, forcing 2 to slide wide. I made the mistake of staying with 2. 2 came in second, 1 was first. I stayed on 2's wheel through the finish line, which was good enough for 6th. I could have done better if I had gone with the other wheel, but even better would be to attack that corner at the front. I was too hung up on not getting gapped, but I didn't cross the finish line a gasping mess, which is often what happens with me, so there was potential to do some more.

[scott_sweeney]

Sooo, I'm confused....how'd you do?

[Jacob]

6th