I am going to start by saying that the winter training at D1 has certainly paid off for my athletes at leaditout.com.!

In the lower category races, Boris Simmonds and Kevin Pawlick, two athletes who participated in my winter program were very upset after the road race. It was a big field and they have not learned to move around well enough in the pack to show off their abilities, so they both ended up with a pack finish. The MSGP is done by time and everyone who finishes together gets the same scoring, so they were all tied...until the individual time trial! A time trial is a race against the clock and it really seperates the strong from the weak. I am proud to say that Kevin and Boris both ran amazing times and moved up into the top positions in the overall rankings. Coming into the last day they both needed to get the time bonuses and a great finish to overtake the leaders...and they did! Boris took the first time bonus with kevin right on his wheel and then Kevin took second place with Boris third in the final sprint to give Kevin the win and Boris 3rd in the overall! This was a 3/4 race, With Kevin being a 3 and Boris a brand new 4, I would say they both dominated!

As for the Pro 1,2,3, we brought 3. Me, Brian, and Justin. The friday night crit was very fast due to the wind which worked against the strongmen. As hard as we tried, we could not create a breakaway. Brian got three primes (prize laps) for 50 bucks each and drove the pace each time but it all seemed to come back together. I got one prime and tried for several breaks but nothing worked. With 4 to go I was sitting 6th wheel marking the winner, Matt Davis, and using my elbows and knees to push others off of his wheel. With one to go his teamate pulled off the front and left the last lap to us. It slowed to a crawling pace and I felt the whole pack creeping up on us. It's now or never...I jumped! I hit a few hard pedal strokes and cut Matt off in turn two and accelerated hard. I gapped the feild bad and Matt jumped hard behind me. Watching the video, you can see that I had a big gap on Matt and he a a huge gap on the rest of the riders. I pushed hard, ripped the corners, sprinted and gave it my all but Matt was able to catch my slipstream on the last turn, take a deep breath and come just around me for the win. I felt I did all I could and made the best decision to go but came up short for second. Brian finished 6th and Justin 10th. Great start!

The RR was very uneventful. We all knew that without aero equipment (TT bikes, helmets, wheels, suits) we could not compete in the Time trial, and with this being a stage race (by time) we had to create a breakaway to place well in the overall. The course was just too easy with no real climbs and no cross winds, we just couldn't do it. All three of us were represented in several moves but they all came back. The most promising move was Justin and Matt's teamate, former pro Russ Walker, which I think had a great chance to win. Herring worked hard and exhausted all of their guys to bring it back and had just given up, but Russ flatted leaving Justin on his own and he came back totally exhausted. It came to a field sprint and me and Brian managed 6th and 7th giving us the same time as the field, which was not what we wanted.

The TT went as expected...I ran the time trial of my life according to my power meter (448 watt avg for 6 minutes) and Brian close behind but without aero gear we were just slow. We both finished out of the top ten putting us 14th and 18th for the overall.  Bummer! Our plan now was to race the circuit with our heads on fire and hope we could create a breakaway and sneak into the overall. We had alot of guys to overtake...

The circuit was an easy course but the wind was high and in one section it was a cross wind which provides no draft and a chance to hurt the other riders. Brian took advantage of it! On the third lap of five the pace got high and the group started to split. I made a risky move and attacked over the yellow line to try to bust it up but got caught by the motorcycle ref and he told me to move to the back for 30 seconds. The problem was that the whole pack was splattered and I had to watch 4 groups of 10 or more pass me and I had to sit on the back of the dropped groups in time out. I did my time...then started bridging groups. When I finally got to the front group, there were 10 or more off the front. I looked around and did not see Brian or any other of the strongmen. "Go with the next attack" is what I told myself and no other than Russ Walker attacked hard to make it to the break. I had to go and averaged 618 watts for 34 seconds to bridge! I closed on Russ but he sat up, not wanting to take me to his teamate, Matt, so I did the rest. I made the bridge and me and Russ both went right to the front to make sure it stuck. Me Brian, and Russ were the only ones working out of 8 and after a lap, we lost several riders, including Russ and were coming into the final miles. Brian was dead set on putting time on the pack so we could both move up in the overall so he drove the front for the last two miles. Just trying to hang onto brians pace was tough but he did an amazing job and put 40 plus seconds on the field. Plenty of time to move us both up in the overall. I held on for 4th and of course Brian finished last of the break with his all out effort for time over the field. We were estatic about our accomplished break away and putting so much time on the others to move us both up in the overall! We finished 5th and 7th in the overall! Very strong work and results versus other teams of 6 to 10 riders and us with only 3. Great weekend for team Infinity/donohoo auto of Brimingham!

Brian has a great write up on http://toonecycling.wordpress.com/ and make sure to watch the videos of the race on the link above under videos/race videos!