[NCNCA] 32nd Giro di SF- masters style

[Larry Nolan]

Another race within a race at the Giro di San Francisco- Larry Nolan, 
AMD-Discovery Channel Masters

The California Cup really spices up our end of the season races as riders 
have multiple agendas.  Finish off the year, win one last race, win the Cal 
Cup or win the NCNCA Premiere Series.  Great stuff.  Well, yesterday’s Giro 
di San Francisco could have been a race within a race within a race but 
Kevin Metcalfe (Pacific) had already wrapped up the Cal Cup with his win at 
the Challenge Road Race.  That left us to fight out the race win and the 
NCNCA Premiere series.

The Giro is a worthy classic of this series because we get the rare 
opportunity to race in downtown San Francisco, and we have been doing so for 
32 years.  On the NCNCA Premiere Series front Billy Clark (Morgan Stanley) 
headed into the M35+ Giro with a comfortable 12 point lead over Jeff 
Angerman (Spine), and 16 points more than me.

On paper, this race typically ends in a field sprint but I have too much 
respect for the Billy’s sprint and his powerful teammates to head into a 
field sprint so I wanted to get up the road.  Teammates Peter Allen and Mike 
McCarthy joined me in the M35 hunt for points.  I thought Safeway and Team 
Spine might want to get up the road as well.  Safeway had lost the Cal Cup, 
and their best-placed rider (Roger Bennett) was sitting in sixth, a whopping 
27 points behind Billy.  Jeff Angerman was on a shorter leash than I was so 
Scott Derenger (Mako and 4th on points) and I attacked with nine to go 
hoping to draw some Safeway muscle with us.   Instead Russell Clark (Morgan 
Stanley) hopped on to mark our breakaway attempt.  Our gap hung at 10 to 15 
seconds.  Stubbornly we continued.  With four to go, our break was slowing 
when out of the pack, Mike McCarthy joins us and immediately does a one lap 
pull.  Back to 15 seconds, but upon his return into the rotation Mike 
confused Russell for Billy and started to gap him off the back.  This 
playfulness was enough to stall our break and we were caught with a lap and 
a half to go.  Peter took over and led us into the bell and up through turn 
four but then the Safeway boys took control.  Mike inserted himself into 2nd 
coming out of turn six but the Safeway boys rolled to the line 1-2-3 (Roger, 
Jeff Poulson and Dean Peters).  Jeff was 4th, Mike held on for 5th, Billy 
was 6th, Scott was 7th and I limped across in 10th.  The Safeway sweep 
really threw a wrench in points tally.

Now the fun begins… Billy is in the lead by just 7 points over Jeff and 8 
points over Roger.  Looks like a Morgan Stanley, Team Spine, Safeway 
showdown!  Of course, we are wondering how AMD figures into the points(?).  
The nine event NCNCA Premiere series concludes at the San Rafael criterium 
this coming Saturday.