Giro d’Grafton

After a long day of manning the Williams booth and taking in the sweet tones of the Midwestern accent I finally donned the Webcor kit and started rolling around. It was a hot day, but not too humid as many of the days here have been. This course was a wide open 6 turn crit with all pedaling turns except for the last one. The final turn was a hard, tighter-than-90 right after a short downhill that led into the long finishing straight.

I haven’t been riding crits very well lately. They used to be my bread and butter, but after a crash or two and some poor finishes I’ve had a hard time getting into the groove. Well today I finally turned it around. I was up at the front for the start of the race and feeling pretty good. Everything finally just seemed to click. I was moving through the pack much better than I have been and it just seemed like the lines were opening up for me. About halfway through the race they called a $200 merch prime while I was sitting 5th wheel and I figured I’d give it a go. On the backside of the course with 2 turns to go a Rio rider jumped for it and got a gap on me but I lit out after him and managed to catch and pass him with about 300 meters to go with no one on my wheel. Nice.

There was a big break up the road and although we were keeping our speed up the gap was hovering at about 30 seconds. Then then Bissel put in some good work and started bringing it down a bit. The organizers had done a silent auction for a Trek hybrid and they put the proceeds into a super prime of $1000. They told us that they’d be ringing the bell for the super prime in 3 laps and we picked up speed as the break started to get tactical with each other. We had them in sight for the prime lap, but no one wanted to be the one to bring it all the way back.

I was busting my butt to stay up front, railing the corners and feeling pretty good as the laps ticked down. With one to go I was a little farther back than I wanted to be but still sitting in decent position. As we flew into the last tricky corner someone moved way off their line and although no one hit the deck things got a little whacky. I managed to pick my way through, latch onto Freys wheel and stay seated until about 100 meters. One man's take on that corner here. Frank Pipp came around me, but I hung in there for 6th. Okay okay, 6th ain’t even on the podium, but it’s the best finish I’ve had in a while and even more important than prime and a small check was the feeling of being back in the groove. Hopefully it’s a sign of good things to come.

I should also say that the people giving me host housing, Patrick and Sarah, were kind enough to hang around for hours and cheer me on. Its such a treat to be 2000 miles from home and still have someone cheering your name during a race. I’m forever blown away by the hospitality of people who welcome total strangers into their homes and treat them with such kindness.

Looking forward to some more good racing!