Santa Ynez (Kenda Cup West)

Yesterday was a beautiful day of racing near Santa Barbara. There was another pretty solid turnout for the 5th round of the Kenda Cup West Series and the weather was awesome this year. The pro race had around 25 guys and there was a good amount of fighting for position during the first few miuntes of the race leading into the hardest climb of the lap. I laid back a little and cruised to the climb about 10th place, and was able to get on the tail end of the front group going over the top. Sid, Aaron Olsen and Andy Shultz did roll off the with a small gap which slowly grew and they went 123 all the way until the end. I raced it out with Sean D, Manny and a couple Blue riders from Canada for all 3 laps. One of the Blue riders rode away from us for 4th, but in the end I was able to go harder than the others at the right times and got myself to the line 5th.

After being tired and feeling out of my normal groove most of the week it felt great to get it back together just in time for another great ride. Life is good and I'll be ready to go after it one more time at the Idyllwild Challenge this weekend before a nice couple week break from racing. I highly recommend this very cool local race, in a beautiful area, with a very hard 27 mile loop and big pro payback - http://www.idyllwildcycling.com/springchallenge.html

Some podium time