Shamwow In Jail

http://www.killsometime.com/video/video.asp?ID=1453

Wilmington Grand Prix

132 Starters. 48 Finishers.

Normal pack jockeying for first half of the race. Couple moves go and come back. 13 laps to go, two guys are sitting off the front like 10 meters not going out or coming back. Feels like the right time to make a move.

Take off, pass the two out front and hammer my brains out alone for 3 laps. The two I passed bridge up and we work together from there. The gap went up to 25 seconds at one point, but then started to come back down to 10 seconds with like 5 laps to go.

Thanks to some work breaking up the chases from the teammates and some extra burying of the legs we get the gap back up a bit. Last lap I sit on and coming out of turn 4 I just let it all loose and take the win by a good gap.

Solid day in all.

Habitat

Cool course. 2nd time I've done it.

A few laps in, Fader and another rider are up the road a little bit. I roll up to them and get on the front and drive for a little bit and a good little gap opens up. We collect a few guys and get rolling, but never too well. So we spend a few laps out there and get caught. I try another move which also fails.

Finally, Whitman and Miller get up the road a bit. So I decide that is the move. Spend half a lap to roll up to them. We get going pretty well, have a good gap. A Colavita guy rolls up and works with us pretty hard. 4 more guys bridge up to us, including Fader, a KBS Pro, another Colavita guy, and someone else I can't remember.

Nearly repeated the Deer disaster of last year on the 2nd to last lap. A whole herd crossed the course in front of us.

I was stupid and got caught up front on the last lap on the back stretch. A Colavita guy went solo off us. Should have gone with him, but I was a pussy. We were guttered hard on the left side of the road and I attacked to the right side of the road and put my head down just long enough to ride right off the road. So after acknowledging my retardedness I came back and was still caught out front. So I went real hard into the final hill as my only hope. Got passed by just about everyone.

Got 7th.

True Athletes

Memorial Hall

Before the race I told myself I have never seen a break away succeed in the P123 race on this course. So, I planned to just sit in till the end, which I should have done. But instead I went with a bunch of moves by Geronimo and Elliston and did way too much work. Sprinted in the money for 13th. Not too bad, but not great and not smart. Oh well....still have lots of lessons to learn.

On a side note, how is Turkey Hill not a PA BAR race?

Turkey Hill

So, the day started with a little pre-race crash in the parking lot. There was the film of oil and water just on the surface of the asphalt that made it slick as hell - I was slipping in my street shoes. Came around a turn and the front tire gave up the ghost.

I roll up to the line with some road rash and beat up kit and get the expected comments. Starting out batting a thousand here.

Race starts and stays together till 5 laps to go. This whole time I am on Stephan Kincaid's wheel like white on rice. I have a tendency of blowing my wad early and being overly aggressive chasing shit down, so I figured it would be the best learning experience I could get to just see what he does. As a former winner of the race and one of the most experienced dudes in the peleton, plus someone I highly respect, I felt comfortable knowing I could learn from his knowledge.

I was so much so on his wheel that I got some comments. Skip (George) on Alliance said, "Hey Stephan, scratch your ass. I want to see if this guy on your wheel will scratch his too!" I'll come back to that in a moment.

So, a break got established, I believe, with 5 to go and gained a 1:15 on the field. Still, I sat in. On the last lap just out of the feed zone, Miller attacks through the rollers. Geronimo gets to the front, pulls through, pulls off and looks around and put his hand up in the air. At that exact moment, it got real slow, so I decided it was time to go and get up to Miller, who was in No Man's Land.

I made it up to Miller along with some other guy just before the gambler wall. We worked and caught the break on the finish stretch about a mile from the line on the last rise. The break had two Harley guys including Dewald, a couple Kelly Benefit Guys, a Hershey dude and some others. I think it was about 12 guys once we got there.

Tried to find the right wheels in the sprint, opened her up, and came in a solid 3rd!

I'll take that.

After the race, I went up to Skip and said, "That is why when Stephan scratches his ass, I scratch my ass."

The 1st and 2nd place names escape me now, but winner was a Kelly Benefit Pro, and the 2nd place was a Latitude guy.