CRCA team Cup 4/2/2004

by Dan Schmalz

Art-nerd note

Sakonnet has nice jerseys. Of course, I'm very partial to my team's (Sanchez Metro) kit, but I'll give credit where credit is due. The black and I believe orange and yellow are distinctive and they began with a good sponsor logo, and that goes a long way.

Gulla

As I was shivering in the car on the ride home, I remarked, "Alex Gulla is alligator-monkey strong!" It may not sound like it, but that is very complimentary. I saw him ride at the front of the group alone for the first three laps. People were just following behind him. Experience would show that he would burn himself out and not be a factor, um, I guess experience was wrong. He escaped at some point, he just kind of seemed to ride away, and he was gone. He had company of course, and from what I heard he kept attacking at the front. Egad! It may go without saying here that he won the race.

Advice from your behind

It seems like I'm still a spectator. It's frustrating to have a feeling for what is going to happen and not to be able to do anything about it. Steve Harvey and Dave Smith are riding very strong for us at Sanchez Metro right now, just before the spilt that made the race. I told Steve to not get caught behind anything. He didn't and went with the group that stayed away. Am I taking credit for his 6th place finish? Of course! But he probably knew what to do anyway, but that doesn't mean I can't jump on the bandwagon! Dave Smith and I stayed behind and let the group get time. Not a lot of chasing was going on. I saw that Kevin Molloy was still with us and I told Dave there was a good chance he would jump across. So we should keep an eye on him. Kevin jumped across on the last lap I believe, and I think he made it to the front group. Kevin's jump is great and there was nothing Dave or I could do about it. I think I hate Kevin right now.

Schmalz Race report

Like I've said before, I don't like the classic race report format. So I'll give you my own assessment. How can you tell how you did when it's so cold, wet and miserable? I chose the right gloves and my hands stayed warm, so I'm going to give myself a lot of credit. I would put my level of suck at 5, a 10 being the highest level of suck.