Rollin On

Today was the Trofeo de Evesham crit. The course if the same as the Thursday night training ride. I signed up to race the Pro/1/2/3, now most races the "Pro" part of that really means nothing. Today was not most races. Before I signed up for the race I could already see the Tyler Wren and Davide Frattini from Colavita/Sutter Homes Professional Cycling team would be showing up. Alright cool I can deal with that. I've been riding strong, so let's see what I can do. I have a pretty easy morning as I did leave until 9:30 am. I arrive and head down to sign in and get my number. On my way I run into Mike Jenks and Ryan Pettit and we start talking about racing against Pro's. Well It turns out not only are the Colavita guys going to be racing but Francois Parisien of Symmetrics Pro Cycling team and Dominique Rollin of Toyota-United Pro Cycling team were also going to be racing. Now for those of you who do not follow professional cycling Rollin is a 6 time Canadian National Time Trial Champion. Also in February at the Amgen Tour of California he won Stage 4 in a long breakaway, beating out George Hincapie for the win. http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2008/feb08/california08/?id=results/california084 is where you can go to read about that. So now I'm a little more nervous. Also as I am still considered a Junior rider (Under 19 years old) I have to race with junior specific gearing that doesn't allow me to go as fast as those that are older than myself even when we are racing in the same race. I had to deal with junior gearing and I am not going to complain about it anymore. It is a fact of life, a hard fact to face but a fact all the same. The race starts off pretty quickly as we descend down the small rise on the backstretch a crash happens behind me. Just glad I wasn't involved. Still it was racing time. I take a pull on the front and try to open a gap and it didn't work. Still I stayed up near the front and made my way over to Rollin's wheel. I figure if he goes I want to go with him. Sure enough out of the next corner he went. I had the power to stay with him, just not gearing. I spun out and could not keep his wheel. Francois Parisien and Steve Blackman of Human Zoom also went with Rollin. I got back into the field and could only hope for a chase to develop. Sure enough one did, with around 7 or 8 riders including both Colavita riders. I bridged over solo and prepared to do some work. I started pulling through, however there were two Human Zoom riders in the mix and they would not help or do any work. Which is smart, I love doing that when I'm in their position. After about two laps I take a pull and we had shed a good portion of the large group, when I looked back for someone to pull through there was only one guy left, Frattini. He pulls through and now it's just the two of us. We trade pulls for around 3-4 laps, we started to pull the break back about 2 laps in. The gap came down to around 15-20 seconds, however it went right back out and 2 laps later we were caught. I was pretty pumped about working with Frattini, even if it was only for 4 laps. Once back in the field I drifted towards the back to recover. I knew it was only a matter of time before we would be lapped. Sure enough with 17 of 33 laps remaining we were caught be the leading trio. Once they caught us I moved back towards the front in hopes that I might be able to try and get away. With around 13 laps to go I jump hard and get a quick gap. No one joined me... at first. I keep on the gas up the hill and onto the descent. I'm about to give up when I look back and see Tyler Wren coming across the gap solo, as he gets close he gives me a shout to get on. I accelerate and catch onto his wheel. I'm feeling it now my legs are spinning fast and were moving. I take a pull onto the main stretch, and then Tyler takes back over. I look back and Parisien had bridge up. However he did not pull through and my legs were shot and the field was charging. I sat up. Tyler gave it another go and went off solo and would stay off to the finish. I fell back into the field and would have to focus my efforts on sprinting. I moved up and had decent positioning for the sprint, until I ended up too far to the front. It wouldn't matter. The last lap was fast, I tried to keep up as best I could. I was spinning like mad and the sprint didn't really go well. I ended up 16th. I'm alright with that. Rollin won the race, big surprise there! I was not planning on sprinting today, I knew my sprint would be worthless with a downhill finish. I'm happy with the way I rode today, I went toe-to-toe with some very strong professional riders, and not only did I survive but I mixed things up a bit. I traded pulls with two pro riders. It's a confidence booster and I learned a lot today. It was also neat to talk with the pros after the race and get some of their input, and I would like to thank them for making it a very interesting race today. All in all it was a good day.

Peace and Love,
Patrick