I’m sure there are more interesting perspectives on the first Wells Ave. race of the year. Here are a few thoughts:

I was impressed by everyone on the team. Here’s how;

Tucker: for nearly stepping on the podium in his first ever race. Awesome! That must serve up some inspiration, eh?

Joe: for looking very comfortable in the C-race and achieving his season goals by his first race. Also – the socks rock. I wore them all yesterday off the bike. The whole team agrees that you did an awesome job getting them made up so quickly.

Leo: for sucking it up and racing while he was clearly not well. Bloodshot eyes made you look crazy & tough. There was fear oozing from the other riders when you popped off the front. I know, I was watching them.

Matt: for climbing mountains in Utah and putting in some huge training earlier in the week to come and put in some HARD efforts at the front quite a few times. I miss the Pepperidge Farm bags though.

Shake: for riding a crazy fast CRW 42 on Saturday only to be at or near the front for the entire race. Man, you look strong.

Ken: for riding a really smart race, staying near the front but not spending too much time in the wind. I think you were poised to have a serious jump left for the end (if not for the flat).

Jason The G: for riding with the wisdom of Erik Zabel, the crafty german who can manufacture podium places and points (as witnessed by your crafty 2nd place prime).

Vic: looking very strong and also sporting the tough-guy bloody nose before the start. I’m going to start telling the other riders that you like to be punched in the face to get you fired up to ride.

Invisifrank, for the high-fives and smiles and sticking around to watch the B Race. I heard you, Joe, Cory and Michael cheering quite a few times around. Thanks!

For those of you that missed the race, here’s how it looked to me:
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At the start, Leo jumped towards the front. I followed. Shake and Matt were there too. I had a hard time picking Jason G. out of the pack since he was in a stealthy black kit with the stealth black Cervelo. Ken and Vic were also a little harder to pick out of the crowd. Maybe because they are not >6′3″ like the others.( Shake is easy to pick out in the Harvard kit)

Leo started out putting some pressure on the pack at about lap #4. He was off the front by about 200m. Some guy from HUP united wanted to get to Leo. I happened to be in the right place and got a free ride up to Leo’s wheel. I could tell the HUP guy was a little gassed from bridging so I thought I would attack him and hope that Leo could grab my wheel. After I attacked, I calmed down a bit and Leo came back to my wheel and the other guy managed to hang on. We stuck together as a 3-man break. It didn’t last long. Maybe 1 lap. The pack sucked us back in. I went back to recover. I saw Vic, Ken and the G – all looking chill. Shane was diligent about keeping in the top 10. I don’t know if I saw him any further back than 5th.

The primes brought out a little craziness. There was some serious speed coming around the final bend. The race for the primes really happened 150m from the start/finish line. I guess the key is to wait to jump until you’re really close to the line. I saw Leo give Shake a nice lead-out only to have a pack shoot up on the left. I missed the G’s 2nd place prime. I think I was back recovering a bit.

At one point, Leo, Shake, Matt and myself were on the front. It was a very cool feeling to know that our team was powering along as the Testa De La Corsa. I managed to do a little pull and come relieve Matt. Some other guys pulled through nicely. I ended up bouncing around the front and recovering back when I needed it.

The last 7 laps I was just trying to stay out of trouble. I saw Ken up at the front doing some work to keep the pace up. Just about then, Vic pulled along my side and right after that ‘the G’ did as well. Great to know teammates are right there with me.

I found this course easier to move around than some other Crit/Circuit races. By the end of the race I didn’t have a whole lot left in the legs. My legs told me not to stand up to sprint but to grind it out. I was a little tired from saturday’s 50+ miles.

Overall, I had a great time and was really pumped to be riding with my teammates. I think we managed to control the race pretty well and I got some nice threshold intervals in there.

Gonna be some good racing this year. Again, it feels great to be surrounded by such a great group of guys.
-r

For Wattage geeks:

25.4mph avg
60 Min Avg 240watts
Peak: 980 watts
10 min: 290 watts

My peak watts of 980 are about 250 off my potential so I know my legs were a little fatigued.