Redlands so far

Well Redlands has been interesting so far. The race started with a 5km generally uphill prologue and the whole team did a really good job. Rory was our best guy in 4th only 6 seconds off the yellow.
I came in 11th, Brad was 12th, Chris was 15th, Karl was 17th and Marc was 24th. It was an impressive display of team depth which should bode well for today's final stage around the Sunset loop. Personally, I've usually struggled in time trials and to get up there like I did really shows that I may have finally cracked it.

The first road stage was a bit of a mixed bag. We wanted to make Fly V work since Ben Day was in the leader's jersey again, but we probably used too much collective energy early and then missed the small break that went at the top of the last climb with 10km to go.
Luckily the team did decent damage control and the group only got 7 seconds. It meant that Rory got bumped down to 6th, but Ben Day kept the jersey so Rory is still only 6 seconds off the lead. Pinner got second in the field sprint to get a 5th on the stage to salvage something from an otherwise disappointing day.

In the crit our game plan was to lead it out for Jake and Pinner to get the stage win. We messed up a bit in San Dimas and tried to come to the front too late in the game, this time we got on the front with 10 laps to go and avoided the carnage behind.
This was Marc's first real crit, so it was a bit of a trial by fire since this is the hardest crit in a stage race that we'll do all year. It meant that it took him a bit longer to get to the train and just as he was about to get up to us, someone dived into a corner underneath him and caused a 30 rider pileup. He's covered in road rash, but hanging in there and ready to start today.

All photos but this one courtesy of Jonathan Devich from cyclingnews.com, this one from Becky Heely

In the end Pinner and Jake got a perfect lead out, but were nipped on the line by a flying Hilton Clarke. Still in was an impressive display of team tactics on our part since we executed perfectly.

Heading into Sunset now we still have 4 riders within striking distance of the overall. Its going to make for some exciting racing.