After 2 days of long, hot and hilly road stages, the race concludes with one of the harder crits around. The course features, rough road surfaces into fast downhill corners, a tough hill to the finish and on this day the threat of severe thunderstorms.

The main goal of the day would be to stay safe and preserve 2nd overall. However, if an opportunity to win the stage or take some time popped up I was prepared to go for it.

Things started out quietly with a few attacks but the team of the race leader kept things under control never letting anything get too big or too far up the road. As we hit 10 laps to go the speed picked up and eventually some rain began to fall. A few crashes were probably helpful in reminding everyone that taking too many risks wasn’t going to pay off today.

As you may have heard we at the Jet Fuel Coffee-Norco Bicycles team ride the top of the line Tactic from Norco. We also ride tires from Continental. So it goes without saying that we all safely navigated the chaos and stayed upright. My main focus was staying at the front and not getting caught behind splits that were constantly happening. As the laps wound down I found myself in 4th position as we hit the uphill drag before the final right hand corner to the hill for the finish. As the pace slowed slightly I decided to go for a long one knowing I likely couldn’t hold it, but would avoid a swarm of riders coming up from behind if I waited too long. I managed 5th on the day and successfully held my overall spot.

Big thanks to the guys for keeping me up front all race and helping to snuff out a few dangerous moves along the way.

Next up is….not a whole lot. Looking forward to some rest and regrouping for the next part of our season.