Good Sensations

Most of the time when I say that I am feeling good before a race, I am feeling 'just okay'. On Friday after being asked how I felt about the weekend, I responded by saying that I had 'good sensations' in the legs. My friend laughed and that was that. It wasn't until my pre-race warmup that I unlocked the secret to going fast again. In Belgium, we use a pre-sports bronzing oil called Quoleum. I applied some before my warmup and then I made sure to apply a little extra after the leg warmers came off. I'm not sure what is in this stuff, but all the amateur Belgian riders love it.Typically, riders will show up to the start line with their legs dripping with this stuff. I'm certainly intimidated whenever I come across these kinds of Top Sporters because they can drive it really hard.

This past weekend I did in fact have good legs. We travelled to College Park, MD to race the University of Maryland Criterium (1hr + 2 laps). The race started at 12:10pm and we were off. The race was pretty controlled from the gun. My teammate Owen Nielsen laid down the hammer for 2 laps before drifting back only for my other teammate Reid Beloni to take over and pull full-bore for another 2 laps. We decided that since we only had 4 guys in the race, we would need at least 2 in every break away. Words are words and sometimes the pre-race plan rarely comes to fruition during the race, so what happened next was really incredible.

I was sitting 4th wheel when an ASU rider attacked. My teammate John Zaccone got onto his wheel and I followed with Matt Howe from NC State. The ASU rider blew up (I think?) and John was left out front with myself and Matt trailing by 20 m. I looked behind and saw the gap was growing. I immediately got in front of Matt and laid down the throttle; 53x12 in the tail wind. Whooosh! We blazed past John and dove into the corner. John got on our wheels and VT had 2 guys in the break. I was super happy. The field shut down for a couple laps thereafter and we rolled it pretty hard.
The gap grew to over a minute, I thought we were going to lap the field. I was doing the pulls up the hill and down the back stretch, pulling for about 3/5 per lap. The break was working well together and Reid and Owen were doing a superb job covering attacks behind us. With 8 to go I attacked just as Matt was finishing his pull. It was a good attack up the hill and I got 30 m immediately. I was pulled in two laps later and sort of got dropped from the break after Matt accelerated past me. Luckily John was sitting on not working until I was able to get back on. With 4 laps to go, John did the same exact attack and stayed away the rest of the race. Kudos to John. Here is a video of the finish:


The jokers on the right are getting lapped while you can see Matt and I sprinting for 2nd. Virginia Tech ended up 1, 3, 4, and 12? Owen took the field sprint. All in all a very strong race for the team.

Sometimes it works out that the first attack doesn't always stick and the second will. It is just a matter of chance. The scenario that played out in the race was practically picture perfect, textbook tactics. This was the first race this season where I had been given the opportunity to really show how well I can go. I hope to have many more opportunities like this for the season. Thanks for reading.

Out,

-E