Sequim #2

I feel this race report is pretty lazy. Racing your bicycle 60 miles I guess isn't lazy but when you sit at the back the whole race chit chatting with your friends it feels a bit lazy. My duty for this race was to be the "sprinter". Our goal again was to be aggressive but not so much in the beginning but on lap 1 our diesel Francis went off the front with 1 other guy. That’s us not being aggressive! They had over 1 minute on us at one point but at the start of lap 4, Jeff decided it was time to go. It took him about 3 minutes to make it to them but he did. Francis finally cracked and came back to us. Jeff stayed away for the rest of the race to take 2nd place. Watching him bridge made my legs hurt. I envy the guys on our team that can stay in a break like that. I won't go into details about the finish on a blog over... the intra-net... but lets just say the sprint wasn't supposed to be contested since Jeff pulled the other guy around the last lap in a half. I am sure you can find the facts on Strava! Lesson learned for us though.

Once we came around the corner to get on Woodcock Rd I started following Chris and Vern towards the front of the pack. My time at the back was over and now it was time to do some work. Once again SCCA/Starbucks Cycling Team moved to the front of the race to take control. Jesse, who missed Sequim #1 was on the front with Peter and both maintained a good speed which kept the other teams behind us. I found Tony a few miles before the last corner and got on his wheel. He is also an excellent sprinter so it was great to have him as my dedicated lead out man. We went by Jesse as his shift work was done and at the 1k to go sign Peter took off. The peloton this weekend was a lot more attentive and covered Pete's kamikaze attack but it was enough to string things out. This allowed Tony to move up closer to the front with me on his wheel. There was a lot of bumping going on as there always is in a pack sprint so Tony and I didn't have much room for maneuvering since we were on the yellow line. He squeezed by a few guys just as we hit the 200 meter sign (the promoter pushed out to an actual 400 meters for saftey). Boom, Tony was done and I moved over to get behind somebody in a black kit (HSP) and as soon as I felt his speed start to drop I jumped. I raced on my new Cannondale CAAD 10 and had it fitted by Todd Herriot and David Richter at Herriott Sports Performance. Both are accomplished ex-pros and David dominates sprint finishes (won both Sequim Races in the Cat 1-2 field). With my new fit I was ready to throw it down. My mom and dad were there to catch it on camera. Thanks Dad.

3rd Place and a great team effort for us to go 2nd and 3rd.