Vegas baby, your money baby

Not sure if you've seen the movie Swingers, with Vince Vaughn, but I always think about that line when I hear Vegas.

Below, pic from Tim Gasperak, from Sunday's Rad Racing GP in Seattle...yah that's why I spent 4 hours cleaning bikes before our flight to Vegas...

Alright. So how dry is it in the desert? Nose bleed dry. Bone Dry. Dry Cleaners...ok that doesn't make any sense, but you get get the picture.

SO for me, I feel like I 'm really close to where I want to be. I finished 16th, which doesn't really sound all that great, but I was in the lead group for most of the race. The lead group of 16. Haha I was the first one to get popped off of it as I was at the back and Trebon's accelerations out of the corners were killing me at the back, definitely felt the elastic. There are times when I thought, holly shit I should have ridden my cross bike more than 5 times this year, but the technique and the fluidity will come over the next couple weeks, as my technique gets better as I race and get accustomed to my bike. I know it sounds dumb but the geometry on the new bikes is alot different, so I just didn't bother riding the other one too much, no sense in getting used to it, cause I had to change. Maybe I'm just lazy.

So back to the race, I was riding in the group and I was just making my way to the front when Driscoll attacked and I started to go up high and I was going to try and follow, but Tim J shut the door and I had to jam on my breaks and I ended up losing a few spots and being at the back of the train again. I just kept thinking..."feel like shit, must attack, feel like I am going to die, probably a good time to attack"...but I just couldn't quite get up there enough to launch it.

WE rode a pair of file treads I glued the day before...usually the tires take a day to dry, but cause there is no humidity, the tires were dry in a bout 3 hours, crazy. Anyways, probably would have helped to ride the files a few times, as I didn't really push them to their limits, but rode them respectably none the less. Great to be in the mix(for a bit) in this race, a few tweaks here and there and I'm in striking distance.

On the last lap two guys caught me, I had done so much work to ride by myself in no mans land for 3 laps and I wanted to fight for my spot. SO I'm running up the final Barriers and I hear a guy yell..."c'mon you ve worked so hard for this, if you don t do it now when are you going to do it". That was enough motivation for me me to just crank it up over the last km and crush the sprint.

It's really funny what you can take from small moments like that. Cause if you can't teach yourself to win from a small group fighting for table scraps, how are you ever going to win when the stakes are 10 times higher right? Anyways it the little things like that I believe are important to focus on when you are trying to progress to taking things to the next level.

So next time your in a little group , fight for those small spots, cause eventually, those small victories add up and could make the difference between landing on the podium or just off the mark.

Tasha rode well. She wasn't totally overcome with joy about her performance, but the race on the weekend and the travel, and the jet lag did kick in a bit, a little more for her than me. But her plan was come out strong at the beginning of the season, and get stronger. Where as in previous years she has come out blazing, and faded, the plan was to be on fire in November, so you gotta go with the flow.

Huge thanks to Phil Cortes and Pierre Perron (Director of LG USA) for standing in the pits and giving us a hand at the race.

No rest for the wicked as we leave again tomorrow to race the Rochester UCI race on Sunday, should be good times. A little bit of a smaller venue and race, but should be good none the less.

West Jet flight, Vegas to Montreal...less than four hours, and 3bike bags...0$...insane...West Jet is the way to go...seats were more comfortable as well.

DSJ