The rest of the story…San Dimas

San Dimas Day 3

The Crit

I woke up with Tyler and Nick on Sunday morning at 5am to get them ready. The crit was held just down the street from our hotel, so to make things easy we just warmed up in the parking lot.

Starting this early in the morning just reinforced the idea to us that we were really tired after yesterday’s heroics.

7:30am was the start of the race and the boys, for the first time I have ever seen, lined up at the back of the group. I have never seen Tyler on the back line of a crit. We were still intimidated.

As the race proceeded Tyler barely moved from the back of the pack, but yet I never saw him in any duress. He never looked tired, while Nick was the one at the front of the group in the perfect pounce position.

Tyler never budged nor did Nick so in the finishing sprint Nick actually garnered our best result of the weekend, an 11^th place.

Nick and Tyler finished the weekend alive and with stories to tell.

The 17-18 race started a bit later at 9:15am, so Daniela woke them up and got them going for their warm up. They too were tired but in good spirits.

This group of boys did not back down from the front line, even when the US National Crit Champion lined up next to Ben on the front line. Seriously.

The boys had great position but it was not enough for Daniel or Keenan.  Within the first three laps the boys were off the pace. They could not believe the speed of the race and their exhaustion from the day before took over. They were unable to finish. Not surprising as the average speed as calculated by the race was over 29mph for 25 minutes!!

Ben held on by the skin of his teeth, always at the back, not off the back, but on it. He looked comfortable the whole race, but was never able to move in the pack.

Christian was the one who came into the day with a chip on his shoulder and he wanted some revenge. He swore to make the race hard and to be a player.

He struggled to get clipped in at the start, so he had to wait until lap 3 of 8 to make a move. This was the first time I think that Christian has attacked in a race and he was unable to create space. He was marked and was never able to get away. He also was only able to make one move. After his move he was forced to the back of the group and was unable to make another move.

Lesson Learned.

This race is the next level. This is the next league and they are really good. Kudos goes to the kids we raced this weekend, they have earned where they are.

We are close though. We are in the same ball park. We have plenty of work to do though to be truly aggressive competitors, but we are most certainly closing the gap.