So yesterday was Vance Creek aka Tour de WPPSS.

Gin had Jamie, Dan, Galen, Colin, and me in the line up of 47 riders brave enough to come out for 92 miles of racing. The weather was near perfect, just a tad on the cool side. Somehow we found Christina, the most awesome wife of a cat 3 guy, to give us feeds--she was spot on and we owe her our gratitude.

The field was strong, with Morgan Schmitt, Patrick Stanko, Mike Hone, Kenny, Richter, Herriot and a host of other cats. We knew we could launch surgical strikes throughout the race and we started out early. Every move we had someone in there either initiating or countering. Joe Barrato was still there after the first lap, which I guess is one barometer of how the pace was from the back. At the front, it was hot and heavy. Gininjas shooting up the road and surfing the front wave. Truly awesome. Galen was in a move with Hone and Jiri (Second Ascent) that stayed away for a lap. As they were caught, I countered and took a solo flyer on the second lap through the farmland. As I was reeled back, Stanko and Jamie came rocketing past with a Lenovo in tow. Philip Elsasser from Shuksan bridged up when the break was still close. And so they were four. Travis Venable was the Lenovo guy and we started taking bets how the new upgrade would handle a 4 man break with two diesel engines and about 70 more miles of racing. Hone was optimistic, but was pretty noncommittal when I asked him whether Travis had ever raced 92 miles before (actually, he raced Walla Walla, so he has done it before--just not in a break).

The time gaps kept coming back positive for us. 1:40 or 2 minutes was what we heard and we were pleased. We just kept chasing stuff down like we were at a carnival, shooting ducks on a wall. We'd tag-team and take turns bridging up to some poor idiot who'd attack. The same was not true for Rob Campbell's dying swan-like attempts to somehow either bridge the 2 minute gap or solo in for 5th place and effectively do a 50 mile TT. Lenovo covered some stuff as we went along and Morgan would animate things with the occasional Herriot bomb.

With about 3 laps to go, we heard that Venable was cramping bad. Jamie said they dropped him by about 10 meters in the rollers before the climb, but that when Jamie punched it just a bit, Venables was nearly out of sight. Ooops! Venables' return to the pack sparked a few Honey Baloney blistering attacks for which he is famed. Sound and fury, signifying nothing. Sucka just rode himself stupid. And there was much rejoicing.

I figured Jamie had the race in hand unless something bad like cramps or a mechanical took him out. Jamie was not to be flexed with. In the last 1k, Elsasser attacked. Stanko just upped his tempo and caught him. Jamie sat on, like a wise pre-birthday boy. Into the final turn, Jamie throttled like hell and crossed the line with full arm salute with an added airplane twist.

Back in the pack and prior to Jamie's victory salute, Morgan Schmitt lit it up with 2 laps to go. I was on his wheel as he guttered the field and just rode everyone into the ground. I looked back not realizing he was even dropping people and saw only Brian Ecker and Kenny with us. Herriot bridged up and sat on. I rolled through once or twice, but Herriot wanted Richter to catch on, which he did. Some Team Oregon dude, Joe King, and Trevor Kosa made it up, too. We rode pretty hard and attacked each other until the last lap. Morgan drilled it again and dropped half of our group. But we sat up in the rollers. Herriot led Richter up the hill. Just before the turn, I got stuck behind Joking and had to sprint up to Kenny, Morgan and Richter. Jamie witnessed my little-ring lashing of Kenny and Morgan, but I couldn't close the gap to Richter. I was 5th

Colin cruised over the line nicely up in the bunch, with Galen and Dan in tow.

Once again, 2 Gininjas in the top 5 and in the money. Birthday present for Jamie, hard earned! Big props to all the boys on the day for some fantastic racing and solid work to nail down the lid on every move.