RWR take Preston St Crit!

The RWR SQUAD put in a good day and showed the colors yesterday on Preston st.

i casually rolled down to Preston st to see local junior Matteo win the junior race in style, off the front, so maybe I had a little inspiration. The second race of the day had Robbie O rolling in the break and just missing out on the win, even after almost everyone from the break crashed at one point during the rainstorm that was almost choreographed to the start and finish of the second race. I was little worried about the 140 lbs of pressure in the 21 mm tires I was rolling , so had to hit the eject valve and rode a modest 110 as there was a 4 foot cobble stretch across the last corner that did not agree with 3mm of tire contact at 50km/hr...especially if it rained.

The funny thing is, the bigger the race, the less nervous I become, World Cup, Nationals, Tour de Beauce, NO PROBLEM...BUT LOCAL RACE, I GET A LITTLE NERVOUS. Maybe it's because over the last couple years I've had to train through a lot of the races, or i just have trouble bringing the intensity that fires me up at bigger events. So I guess the pressure that I was feeling was cause there was really no excuse. Really, it's June, I'm fresh off Beauce, Nationals next week...this is my time, there was 1000$ for an hours work, you 'd have to be a little silly not to want to go well. That being said, it's never easy to win and obviously they are not just going to let me ride away.

I will have to say that who ever thought of getting Aaron to ride with us is brilliant as it really changes the dynamic of the racing. Not only is it one less guy to chase down, but it's one of the strongest guys working with you and not against you. Coupled with Glen having some good form from 6:1 ration RWR plan(for every 6 hours racing do approx 1 hour training) and G Reain throwing down some Blue Steel attacks, it makes for a wicked strong team.

We had a rough plan of what we wanted to do for the race, basically what we did on Tuesday night's dress rehearsal Bill Patterson Memorial. I thought maybe we let the cat of the bag but I guess no one was paying attention, cause it was a pretty familiar move. Anyways that's not to say I didn't attack about 87 times trying to stir the pot, but it would not have been possible without Glen, Greg and Aaron.

I'm not sure if you could see the little nuances from the sidelines, but the little things like Glen going to the front at the start to single file it, Aaron just lighting it up making hard to just hold the wheel, let alone attack, Greg's perfectly times attacks and tactful positioning in the the rotations, these are the things that make bike racing fun! To have a loose plan (like a wizards sleeve) then to actually execute it, man it like a good trance song, like Tiesto live at the Gellderdome, it just doesn't get much better than that. Sure it's one thing to win a sprint, but anyone that knows me, knows that that is the way that I like to win with "no else in the photo". Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but when it does it's sweet.

I don't really remember what lap I went off on but it was after Aaron was driving it and I do remember a few key thoughts going through my head. One was "why did you put yourself in this situation, again, you know this is going to hurt", the other was "you like to hurt, this is why you do this, this is why you can win, cause no one else wants to hurt like this right now,"...luckily that latter voice triumphed and and I just rode at 90-95% until i heard JS was closing the gap then I rode outside of myself for a bit, so much that as I had been pedaling through all the corners I clipped a pedal on the first corner. Funny enough it was just like a little fart at your in laws and I just pretended it didn't happen. "What? That wasn't me". It got really hard for a few laps but the damage was done and there was no way they could close, with 2 laps to go go i knew for sure it was mine. I must have looked back 16 times though on one lap as I was a little panicked about only having 10 seconds, but the RWR guys did the job and kept it from rolling down to low.

I did a couple double fist pumps with jersey zipped up tight and one final shoulder check a la cyclo cross to finish first in front of a very empathetic home town crowd in front of my friends, Natasha and my dad on Fathers day, so it was a big one for me. Especially since a few years ago I finished second just shy of the win, it's nice to come back and seal the deal. So i was pretty ecstatic with victory celebration across the line, I was pumped and just couldn't help the celebration.

DSJ