Northfield Crit

Its not too often the Giant TCR comes out to play. Today we had some fun on the skinny tires. Chris Fisher, Sam, and I did the cat 4/5 race. Chris and I did allot of the work up front. There were a couple crashes but no major pile ups. I was behind one guy who jumped his pedal in a corner, did huge fishtail, saved it, then his tire blew up. An old lady in a car somehow got on the course and one of the course officials stopped the lady right after the apex of an on coming corner. Luckily everyone saw her and the pace was not crazy fast so everyone was able to avoid her. With a few laps to go I let up and decided I wasn't going to be involved in a chaotic finish, this was a training race and I just wanted to finish with all of my skin. However,coming out of the last corner before the finish line we had one lap to go and I was in the back. I don't know if it was the adrenaline or what but I found myself advancing really fast through the field on the outside down the straightaway. Well I didn't want to be next to anyone going into the first corner since it was the sketchiest one so I punched it and pedaled hard, when I looked down we were doing 32-35mph. The first corner is a sharp and narrow 90 into a short punchy stair stepper climb. I stayed on the gas with Chris on my wheel and held the pace the whole lap taking the corners as fast as I could, no need for brakes on these corners. As I exited the last corner onto the finishing stretch I yelled to Chris, "there's your leadout". He did a good job on the sprint and took 1st. He also got two of the three primes. I rolled in 9th. I told Chris that if anyone was going to win I would like to have it a mountain biker. Chris is a powerhouse on the sprints lately and I knew he had the best chance. Sam was looking pro out there with his fishnet like arm and leg bandages holding on the gauze pads. Good times though.