Christmas in March and University Oaks Crit

So, the Alchemy frames are in. along with Rol Wheels a Sram Red Grouppo and Deda Zero 100 Components. The bike was built up last week and looks ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Also in the mail came a LAS Victory helmet, and brand, spanking new Toyota GCCA kits.

Our first race in the new kits was the University Oaks Criterium in San Antonio, Tx. The plan was to work for drew to try and get him some upgrade points. Discussing the race before hand, and looking at the pre-registered riders, we decided the optimal situation would be to try and get Drew and myself in a break with Eric Benz (AT&T) and Colt Trant (Matrix).

Not having really put the new frame to the test, I was a bit nervous as to how it would handle the demands of a crit. Nerves went straight out the window as soon as the officials said go and i decided to attack from the gun again. Actually getting a break to stick from lap zero wasn't entirely my plan, but it ended up working. Benz bridged up, shortly followed by Trant, Drew, and a few others.

Drew's job was to rest as much as possible, and let me do the work, and wait for the last bit of the race to try anything. The break eventually lapped the field, making scoring obscenely difficult. With a little over one to go Joseph got to the front of the group to start the lead out train for Drew. Unfortunately for the team, a car somehow got onto the course and was headed straight towards the field of riders. This caused absolute mayhem but, through some sort of miracle, everyone stayed up right. Joseph stayed on the front, followed by me and Drew. He pulled off with about 3/4 of a kilometer to go and I drilled it up until about 400 meters to the line when Colt Trant attacked. Followed by Benz and two riders from Canada. Absolutely gassed, I gave it one more dig, but couldn't catch the small group. Drew launched and bridged, but couldn't come around them by the finish. He would end up fifth. I limped across the line in 9th.

                                                          Big thanks to Dave from DCM photography for the shots of the bike and Lafico for being a great leader/engine of the GCCA leadout train.