Criterium Internationale

Last night we descended upon UBC to race bikes and see who was fastest...what better way to spend a nice Tuesday evening.

We had a bigger contingent this week with Sizzle and Martin getting into the mix, and then to our delight, who do we see up there but none other than the illustrious Johnny Markez, fresh from Slovenia and doing the RAS 2009! Awesome! I got even more psyched when Markezzy delivered the news that we'd be racing together in Cat. 4...this was bound to be a quick race now.

The horn went off for KC's and Mart's race and they filed onto the course. After a few laps of feeling things out (this was their first crit) they steadily moved up through the field unti they were consistently coming around in the top 8 guys. With a few laps to go they jumped off the front as an attack went and next thing you know they were sprinting across the line with Sizzle snatching 5th and Martin grabbing the 6th spot! Great finishes for their first race...nice work boys!

At this point Markez and I were shivering on the start line but soon enough they sent us off in hot pursuit of the Cat. 3 fellas about a minute up the road. The first few laps were pretty mellow and then part way up the incline I got onto the front and started upping the tempo a little...through the corner and onto the top flat now when I feel a big paw patting my back and sure enough there's Markez the Machine slotting in on the front with his pistons saying "If you want to win this race, get on THIS wheel" (in Phil Ligget's voice of course). It was so awesome! I tucked down in John's draft and looked down at his wheel and in slow motion saw the chain start it's journey downshifting on his rear cassette, 'clunk....clunk....clunk'. I thought to myself, "oh man....it's ON!" Then Markezzy started drilling it! We swapped pulls for about two and a half to three laps with him taking the much longer, stronger ones but unfortunately the group was on our wheel so we didn't get away but hopefully dished out some pain in the process.

The preme sprint came and went and then with about two and quarter laps to go, two Glottman-Simpson boys jumped off the front together and I worked to get up to them through the bottom corner. As I approached the second guys wheel, the first guy sat up and swung off, and then the second guy kind of sat up also. With a quick glance back I noticed that I had about 20 feet or so on the group and these two yahoos didn't look in the mood to chase anything down so I pinned it between them. When I looked back half way up the incline I had a decent gap on the field with two laps to go. With Markezzy blocking back in the group, I put my head down and buried the hatchet. One lap to go, still got a gap, see if I can make it...half a lap, still got the gap, wow this may actually work. Come through the second last corner and their definitely closing now...through the last corner, out of the saddle and BOOM, Glottman-Simpson smokes by me like I'm standing still but Markezzy graciously gives me 2nd and takes 3rd for himself.

What an awesome race! Thanks for the pulls Markez and we'll do it again next week boys!