Southampton Day 1

So.....race #1 in the Hamptons is under our belts. And both Derrick and I got our sweet revenge from last year. For me I actually got the hole shot. As a roadie I should be getting the pavement on everyone and today it clicked for me. I didn't get the initial jump but it was a long paved section to the first corner and I got on the front right before the corner and got a 5 metre gap on the field. Little did I know where I was going though. Felt like an OBC course as the first section of the course was changed a little bit from the regular course loop. We came into a climb and I jammed on my front derailer to shift to the little ring. Ahh....it's stuck and I hold up pretty much the whole field with my elbows out only one rider getting through and getting a gap on us. Through the next 1km I get on to the front group and attack it. I lead the race for about 2 laps and was like "where is everyone". Next thing I know Georgia rolls through and I hear that Lynne Bessette is closing on me (she came out of retirement today and rocked the course). Again like last week I was a little star struck and had to hit my head a few times. Did I mention it was about -10 degrees Celsius here with the wind gusts at 35 km/hour. I had put on a toque for the race and my helmet didn't really like it. The first wind section of the course I was battling with my helmet trying to keep it on. It was pretty embarrassing but I dealt with it.

Amazingly enough I battled for second with Lynne over the rest of race. The amazing part was I was riding technically better than her and catching her on a tricky rutted out downhill section. With one lap to go I tried hard to get by and then she put an attack on me before the single track knowing she needed to be in front. Then I was pretty taxed and started messing up some lines, so I shook myself a bit to focus on riding smooth. Ended up a few seconds back at the finish in third. Overall, probably one of my best days on the bike ever. Oh and many, many, thanks to Steve Proulx for checking my tubulars this week. You saved my life, cause if we (oops, I mean Derrick) didn't re-glue my rear tire I'm for sure I would of rolled it. Thanks Steve......and kick some ass tomorrow, I have good vibes for you.

Derrick says....(ok actually, I will just let him write this after he finishes the dinner I cooked him after he road the compu-trainer for his warm down for about 40 minutes. Want to guess what it is, of course brown rice, chicken and salad. It's my dinner of champions to be. It never changes, it's what I eat every night of the week.)

Ok, so Tasha's race...AMAZING! When I saw her in the lead...I thought holy moly. It was awesome...So the plan was for moi, to not get too excited and actually focus on my preparation as I just get a little too hyped for her. I prepared for this race by giving myself a nice treat, a brand new goatee! And that's what made me race well. Am I superstitious, no...maybe just a little stitious, but not super. Strangely I was the only one in bare legs, which also brought good luck. The third trifecta for the good luck was my also brand spankin new Rudy Project photo chromatic Impact lenses, thanks Bob Kirkup! These lenses are actually magical as they change color from clear to almost opaque for extreme conditions. I think they are going to have an episode on Discovery Channel's "How it's made"...ok that's not true but they should cause the science behind that mess is just way beyond me.

Uhmm...so my race..hard, lots of spit on my face, luckily it was my own. I had a phenomenal start and was in front of some big guns, I eased off the throttle a bit cause I started seeing purple...that's usually a sign to back off just a tad...so I made the ass end of the get away train in about 11th spot, passed one dude, battled with Matt White a bit and was right behind a Kona dude. Have to say that I'm pretty happy with 10th in this C1 race. I feel like the combination of the goatee, bare legs and new glasses worked out well. The fact that we have been dragging our carcasses to sufferests all over North America and training like MGR's (Mental Gorilla Robots ) probably has nothing to do with our success, it is clearly related to getting new Rudy Project glasses, yah Tasha was sporting her Zero Deg lenses in her Rudy glasses and it obviously paid off. It can't just be a coincidence. Moral of the story...get stuff it will make you fast. Also I really put the Octto wheels through the ringer today and once again thanks Steve "best damn M1 racer in Canada and 3rd in the USGP" Proulx for taking a look at the equipment this week and making sure everything was copacetic. Sorry that my posts are a tad tangential in nature...my lungs may never be the same, I feel like I smoked a carton of Marlborough Lites.