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Monterey, Calif.- When Evan Oliphant of  Plowman Craven looked back as he was about to cross the finish line, he had nothing to worry about. He crossed the line in first place at 3:01:11, with a 30 second gap ahead of second place finisher Simon Richardson, who also rides for Plowman Craven. “I just gave out everything the last couple of kilometers and it worked out perfect,”  said 26 year old Oliphant.  ”I was on my own, I was just trying to hold on” the Scottish native added. ”I thought Simon was the strongest, but I saw an opportunity to go there at the end so I just went.” Oliphant and the rest of the racers completed 8 laps on a grueling 8.5 mile course that wound up and down the not-so smooth roads of Fort Ord. Early on in the race, potholes sent two riders to the ER and left several others with severe road rash. Oliphant was caught up in the mess. “There was a massive hole in the ground and his (the rider in front) bike flipped right over and cut me on the side.” The uneven pavement, windy descents, and short, yet steep sections challenged riders to the end. ”I think the course itself was quite tough” Simon Richardson explained.  ”On the climbs there was a high tempo and that saw people off I think, until the last lap when the big attack went.” Richardson, who is entering his first season of all road racing after being a professional mountain biker, came in second. ”Evan was attacking on the last lap making sure I didn’t have to do any work. He got brought back at the bottom of the climb and then went immediately and only one of the Rock guys was chasing. No one else was doing any work so he stayed away and I got second,” said the 24 year old. Sergio Hernandez of Rock Racing came in 3rd.  Team Plowman-Craven had three riders finish in the top ten. The team, which is based out of Great Britain, is in the US for a brief respite from European racing. “There is no racing back home in the UK at the moment so we had the option of coming out here for three weeks” explained Evan Oliphant, who will be flying back to Great Britain with his team on Monday. The team competed in the Redlands Bicycle Classic as well as the Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix last weekend in Ojai, CA. Still, today’s race pushed each rider to their limit. It was chilly, clouds covered the sky for the entire race and a small crosswind at one point in the race was almost the breaking point for some. However Nick Brandt-Sorenson of Liquid Cycling remained positive about the course. “The rollers were great. I did a lot of work to try and get the break going. We just kept pushing it and it stuck.”  Brandt-Sorenson, who lives in southern California, came in 5th.   When it came time for the exhausted racers to come up to the podium, third place finisher Sergio Hernandez of Rock Racing was nowhere to be found. Neither was Rudolph Napolitano, also a member of the Rock Racing squad. The two had also seemed to escape reporters at the finish line, leaving almost immediately after they said a few congrats to fellow racers. However, Oliphant, Richardson, and Brandt-Sorenson enjoyed the champagne shower without the company of the two missing cyclists. Be sure to check back to the Sea Otter Classic section of Bicycle.net as we upload exclusive pictures, videos, interviews, and more.