Road Nationals-Criterium-Bronzing in Beauce

So we're relaxing after a good day at the office.

Preparation for the Crit. Morning clean Tasha's bike, it was filthy...shocker. Bring Tasha to Crit, sit in sun, yell on radio, get sun burn. She ended up coming 5th in a pretty conservative race.

It was really nice to see Tasha racing this way. Sometimes you have to take one step backwards before taking two steps forward. Patience is a virtue. I'm guessing the lessons learned in the last few weeks will pay off huge dividends in the next 3 weeks.

Wait a few hours drink a red bull and then totally don't follow the script in my crit. As I told Tasha to be conservative, I did the polar opposite and attacked with 22 laps to go. I rode off the front for what seemed like a long time, holding about 10-12 seconds from the lead group. They started really throwing it down and had brought it back to 6 seconds. People we're yelling splits all over the place, the announcers were saying that it looked like they were going to pull me in...then it happened...Glen Rendall's advice from a few years resounded in my mind. Somehow there was energy to push through and in two laps the gap went up to 20 seconds. I was eventaully joined by Kevin Lacombe and then after Bruo Langlois. I was pretty cooked and lacked a little jump in the final sprint. So ended up third.

Pretty happy that I took initiative, made them race my race and was in a position to win a National Title. So bronze medal for me. Worked hard to get it and I'm glad it ended up being the way it was. At least the guys who stood on the podium, worked their butts off to get there.

We are blessed to stay with RWR Crew on Lac Simon. We are right on the lake, huge house with a deck, tons of windows, great lake, it's like being on vacation. Those RWR guys really know to get things done. Also having Glen here to help with mental aspects, tactics, pre race kind of stuff is probably the best part of it all. Glen's experience and insight into all aspects of racing is incredible. So many people will just never truly understand what this man puts into his program and how his purpose is to enable others to experience racing and help them ac hive their potential. Not to mention he has some awesome Trini stories after a good Belgian beer.

So no TT for the Duo as we have many things to do this week at the Lake which include...well come to think of it nothing!

So let me just say again that I'm pretty stoked about stepping on the podium yesterday, I didn't win but it's better than a slap in the face. Also now I have money to buy groceries this week.

DSJ