By Ethan Atkins -- Metromint Giro di San Francisco (3) -- 09/07/09
For many in the Bay Area, the Metromint Giro di San Francisco marks the traditional end of the racing season. For the Metromint Cycling team, it is our showcase event, one that we all collectively work hard to put our best foot forward and create one of the best events of the year. Yet, as welcoming as we are to our fellow racers off the course, we are ruthless competitors once the race gets started, all doing our best to spoil everyone else's Giro ambitions. My personal ambitions were high, needing no less than the race win to earn enough points for my cat 2 upgrade in my last race of the season.
The race day started for me at 5am, when I had to get up to catch the BART from Oakland to San Francisco to be on time for 6am course set up. We arrived at the course before sunrise and began the work of putting up fencing and tape to cordon off the important parts of the course. Gradually the sun rose on a beautiful day and the women's race was off at 8am without a single hitch. The next five hours I spent first working the prize tent, and then walking the course with Rob Meyer, spelling other marshals and strategizing for our 2pm race. Rob was our designated strongman, planning to breakaway from the field about halfway through the race, with me sitting back waiting for the final sprint if Rob's break didn't work. Animal that he is, Rob volunteered to lead me out in the final lap if we were together. Cat 3 teams are rarely able to pull off successful leadouts and we've struggled ourselves to execute at the end of crits, but I had no doubt about Rob's ability to control the last lap if we were both in position.
After a sleepy warmup, I went to the start area to watch the conclusion of the women's race. Our teammate, Amanda Seigle, was in the midst of an amazing flyer off the front that she almost carried to the race win from about 10 laps out. I knew we'd have our work cut out for us to match her incredible effort. Tom Reynolds, Mark Fairman, Rob and I made up the cat 3 team that lined up with the rest of the 87 man field. The race immediately got off to a quick start and I was fairly far back in the beginning. After about 10 minutes, I had made my way up to the front just in time for a prime lap. I ended up pulling this entire lap and launching a sprint from the last corner to take the prime. Unfortunately, this was a much more tiring effort than I expected and I soon found myself near the back of the race again. The rest of the race was spent gradually making my way back up to front, generally advancing position on the long headwind straight and maintaining on the backside of the course. While I was in the midst of this, Rob was trying to execute his plan, going off the front a number of times, but the field was strong and motivated so nothing was able to stick.
Near the end of the penultimate lap, neither Rob nor I were in great position. The field, however, decided to slow down just a tad going through the finishing straight and I made a move to bring myself up to the front, not even realizing that Rob was on my wheel. As I went to pull off the front, Rob passed me just before the finish line and yelled at me to jump on his wheel. I put in a little dig and got on his wheel. Soon after, I felt a moment of clarity that I'd never felt in a race before. I knew that Rob was going to take me all the way to the last corner and that I was going to win the race. Sure enough, Rob continued setting a brutal pace around the backside of the course, far too fast for anyone to even think of coming around us. Rob went through the last corner first, with me right behind him. I opened up my sprint immediately coming out of the corner and it became a 200 meter drag race to the line with one other guy. With only a few meters to go, I knew I had the win and got to throw up my arms in celebration. The culmination of a perfect day and perfect teamwork. I couldn't possibly imagine a better way to win a race and finish a season, and with the points I earned from my win, I'll be moving up to cat 2 for next season where many new challenges await.