Heat Wave in Napa, and a hill climb to forget

The weekend started off with the usual crit prep. As we arrived in downtown Napa, we discovered a not so usual crit course. This course had a "crazy P" on one end, and a "box" at the other end. Personally I loved the "crazy P" and the "box", it gave an interesting twist to the race. After Zach and I got done investigating the course we took to finding a shady spot to warm up in. The heat in Napa on Saturday was borderline unbearable, and it didn't help that the 3's race had to start at 1:05pm. Warm up was a drag, but Stevo did try to liven things up with the ice down the bibs trick. ;]

After getting the final pieces of ice out of our bibs we set out to the start line with two bottles each. (First time I ever thought about taking two bottles for a crit). While I was standing on the start line I started to feel my foot catching fire from the hot blacktop. I thought i was just imagining it for a second, but Zach grumbled something about his feet burning as well before i said anything out loud, and ignored the feet. Since this was a technical course our plan was to stay at the front and make sure nothing got up the road, unless Zach (the upgrade points chaser) was in it. During the first trip around the "P" i was sitting about 4th wheel and the guy in front of me blows his tire and eats it. I start thinking that this is going to be another one of those fun 3's crash fests, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The next few laps were crazy fast and crazy hot, mainly because Zach and i were covering everything and I was pulling hard on the front in attempt to drop the sketchmen who can't corner. After hearing the announcer, Jess Raphael, getting excited about how the Davis junior squad had the race under control, we both jumped across into a break of two. James LaBerge also followed and it was the five of us working nicely. Slowly half, of what was left, of the field bridged up and there were 14 of us. At that point almost everyone stopped working and Zach and I tried telling people to work for about two laps. Nothing could get these negative racers to work so we gave up and sat on like everyone else... At this point my ice bottles were hot and almost gone. I was starting to feel the tunnel vision settle in, and even the occasional goose bumps. We finally got lap cards out and the field was all together again. With about 5 to go a guy decided to go for his solo bid for victory. I told Zach to just sit in, got no response, and moved up to the front to bring back the solo breakaway. After two laps of working on the front, and three laps to go, I heard Stevo on the sidelines "Zach is out!"... WHAT!... all that work, no points. THREE LAPS TO GO. Poor guy dehydrated and his world began to spin. Good thing he pulled out, could have cause a pretty nasty wreck. As for me, well my world began to spin a little too, frustration and dehydration settling in, so I decided to just play it safe and not try for positioning. I came in at the back of the bunch, with empty bottles, dry mouth, and a big headache.

All in all it was a really fun race and a cool course. Definitely going there next year again. As for Z's upgrade points, well.. 9 more points isn't too much, we should be able to handle that in no time.

Mt. Diablo, or as I told Zach... Mt. Dia-blow my legs.
I love this climb, as a climb. But a time trial up it?... Not for me. If this was a mass start race all the way to the top I would have done better, but the solo ascent killed me. Alex Wick had a fairly good ride to lock up second place in the Junior Points Series, but Charlie Avis was just in a different climbing league.

Alex may have been a better climber then me today, but his baby brother Zach, me, and Jan got the hard man points of the day for going all the way to the summit. (The time trial went to the halfway point of the mountain). As the two biggest guys on the team, we needed it for sure.

A big shout out to lil ol' Cody Tapley, the boy sure can climb. I can't wait to see what happens once he gets a normal sized head on his shoulders and starts to race smart. He's getting stronger, that is for sure. Nice ride dude