On Saturday, our team boss, Kurt, asked me if I was nervous. I said yes, and he said, well that’s good because that means you have good form. So that is a positive way to put my nervousness. I do have good form right now. The good form alone was not enough yesterday. My teammates were all working for me yesterday and they were great. I managed a little bit of drama early on. I crashed on the 2nd or 3rd lap going into manayunk. Not sure what happened except that there were cones bouncing around everywhere and guys dodging them everywhere in front of me, and I just hit the deck. I bounced back up and Mike and David were right there to help me chase back. I made it back onto the back of the pack right at the bottom of the wall, so it wasn’t too bad. A lap later I changed to my spare bike, because my front brake lever broke in the crash. Other than that, the race was just a battle for position for when all the big hitters show up to play at the end of the race. When it was all said and done I made the front group of 30 riders. The final group was full of good sprinters, and they all seemed to have teammates too. United really controlled things in the last 10 miles and held it all together for a field sprint. I tried to jump it a little early, but it didn’t work and the sprinters had their day. It feels good to finish in the front group, now I have the confidence that I can do it, and probably a few more years of trying to win philly.
Thanks to everyone who was out there screaming my name during the race. I hear it, and sometimes I will even look around and see who it is. I saw the old Bicycle Therapy crew out there with a 2 signs, one for me and one for Willly. That was cool. Next year maybe we will get geronimo in there too, so they will have to make 3 signs. I know that there was a ton of all you PA riders out there supporting me, Thank You.
I am heading to Minnesota tomorrow for the Nature Valley Grand Prix. I will keep you up to date on that one.
Talk to you later,