4/20/2003

Hello everyone,

First of all, Happy Easter. I hope that the holiday was good for you and that you are enjoying some warm weather.

I want to really think through yesterday's race while I write as again the race was very difficult tactically to sort through. Unfortunately, in the words of someone smart..."sometimes school gets in the way of learning."

I want to again give a great review of the wheels that Nigel has built up for me. They are yet to cause any trouble for me, Nigel...maybe you could build up some chains...?!

To the race. The race is the Marion College crit, which was run on a one-mile course through Marions campus, most significantly defined by nearly a 500 meter finishing stretch follow by a near 180 turn. The race was to be hard fought as it was the regional crit and double points (woo-hoo) were up for grabs...oh yeah, also all that glory of winning such a big bike race in collegiate cycling...podium girls, money, fame, and fortune. The UW team came into the race in first place for teams in the conference, meaning we were leading on totals points earned, with Indiana following closely behind. At the start Nick, Ted and I lined up with 42 other racers, including probably 12 or 13 Indiana riders along with Rashaan Bahati of Saturn (also chasing the fame and fortune). The rest of the feild was a mix, but no one else had a number larger than five guys. The race started pretty fast and stayed that way the entire time. We had planned to work to cover important attacks and get one of us into "the proverbial break", we decided that 1 in 4 for Nick and I was good for breaks....although we wouldn't have been able to really chase back a break we didn't like.

I spent alot of time at the front of the race early and was either Nick or I got into the little splits while the feild chased everything. I was to concerned about doing to much, and knew that I could stay at the front for the entire race if need be. Eventually, Kehrberg from IU got off solo, and Nick ended up going with an attack that took him up with one OSU rider, One IU, and Mike House from Miami. Five guys in the break and I liked it knowing that Nick can sprint and figured that the two IU's were better than 10 plus Bahaati in the field sprint...or another break. I stayed at the front and pretty much covered attacks and hung out waiting and watching. After the break was clearly gone, I knew that bahaati would probably try to bridge so I was concerned with him and a few others. Indiana had two teams in effect, one that was composed of some guys, and another that was composed of Bahaati's goons. None of Bahaati's goons could really help him, but most of the accelerations from the "peloton" were covered by IU, or chased right away. With about 10 laps to go, Bahaati put in his effort to bridge, as the break had started to fool around to early and the gap was 30 seconds. Bahaati's attack was good, and I was on his wheel. Of course I would not work with him to get up and he wouldnt bridge with anyone else, so we sat up and the feild was right behind. the breaks gap went back to over 1 minute, and they were gone. With about five laps to go, I realized that Bahaati pretty much wins the sprint for sixth, so as much as I would like to have beat him in the sprint, I tried to take off on my own for sixth place. with three to go, I had a good gap of about 20 seconds and was ready to make a big effort. I dont know if I would have stayed away...I had a good shot, but it didn't matter when my chain broke. I got off, had no free lap and watched the pack ride by. My teammate Ted quickly got off his bike and I was chasing about 30 second off the back with two to go. I got close and just as the pack slowed of
course someone took off and they rode away from me...I never got back to within 20 seconds. I finished somewhere off the back and although I had nothing to show for it, I got in a hard race and another learning experience.

Nick finished tired as a dog with 4th place and I think Indiana got 1-2-6-7...something like that. Nick worked really hard and after the race I think we were dissapointed, but we both know that more important times are to come in the next few month's.

On a chain note, I am not sure why the chain broke, I had put in a hard week on it, and obviously had no trouble. I suppose that is just the luck of the draw, and hopefully bad luck will end soon. I have had many fortune's in the previous two years and good of course comes with bad sometimes. Needless to say, in my own mind I am really pissed, so hopefully I can begin to take out some anger during the week in training.

On another note, the Easter weekend gave UW's team a slap in the face. Indiana got out the KY jelly and well you can fill in the blank. I understand why this happened but it is hard for the guys who showed up to fight, fought hard, and after things settle, we got handled by Indiana again. I may sound a bit hypocritical as I routinely downplay the importance of collegiate cycling, but knowing that we could have had more guys and a better result (in all races) is hard to swallow.

I am happy to say that my condition is pretty good for now. I did not feel good at all yesterday, but I was still able to attack alot and be in the mix (sort of) in the final. Now it all comes down to getting that one great day on the right day, if I do, I will win. If I dont, I will still win.

Thanks again for reading and I hope that you will send me your questions/comments/anything at all about the race or racing in general.

Thanks for all the support, and have a great week,

bryan