Today in Santa Cruz UC Davis went 1,2,3,8,11 in the Men's As, 1,4 in the Men's Bs and 1,2,3 in the Men's Cs. Pretty much a total smackdown. And those are the results I know of, I saw the women do well too, but I don't have any numbers.

The UC Santa Cruz road race course is the same as the University Road Race that Velopromo puts on in August. So 3 mile loops, half up, half down, we did 20.

The race played out a little different than in the years past. Usually they put the KOMs early so things would break up on their own. This year they were spread out to 16,12,8, and 4 so there was one hard lap and then 3 chill ones. People were also being cautious due to the big head wind on the hill.

Anyway, the UC Davis Men's As had 5 in the field, me, Phil, Will, Harmen, and Nils. Things started out pretty mellow. Will broke his chain on one of the first laps, somehow fixed it in a lap and a half and chased back on to be just a lap down. You'll find out why this sucked later.

With about 11 laps to go something needed to happen, so I countered an attack. That worked and then there was a group of 7 off the front with 4 Davis guys in it. Awesome, but the other guys didn't want to work. Not a problem, we sent Harmen off the front and then just sat on.

A few laps later a chase group caught us to make a group of about 12. We communicated together and decided to bring in the Pain Train with 6 to go. It came and only 4 got on, me, Phil, Will and Harmen. Yes, all Davis.

We rode the last laps hard to make sure we would stay away. Towards the end Phil asked what I would give him so he wouldn't sprint. What I gave him was his dignity by not dropping his ass right in front of everybody.

We ended up making an agreement and all 4 of us crossed the line together. The order was me, Phil, Harmen and Will. Since Will was a lap down he got relegated to 11th. Nils finished a solid 8th.

Some would argue that all the good riders were at Madera this weekend. I would argue that a 4 rider smack down doesn't just happen and this is just the beginning.