TO crit, Ardwood ills, Contre La Monte

SO, in the past 5 days I have done 3 races on 3 different bikes in three different disciplines. Now I was thinking this must have been the most racing I have ever done in a five day period but I was incorrect. That would have been when I did transrockies which was 7 races in 7 days consecutively. With that debate settled (quickly and without much debate just a simple internal dialogue that took 4 - 5 seconds) I will now speak on these races. 

The first of which was the friday night downtown criterium in Toronto.  I was really looking forward to this race as it was in my hometown, had more than 6 - 10 spectators as most my races, and was at night. All of these things combined had me very excited as I rolled down avenue road with Mike "best rider ever on the dount" Mitchnick and legit bro Sam Bail. After a small warmup the race began and I was not situated in a great spot. I was about 40 riders back so I spent most of he first 30 mins working my way to the front which was not so easy. Once I got there I spent the rest of my night pulling, cloing gaps, or launching hopelss attacks. Oh it also poured which made it dicey but epic and fun. Overall this was an amazing experience and I am so glad I did it even though it could have had a less than positive impact on my adwood ills race.

Speaking of the ardwood ills race any worries about the TO crit having a negative impact were quickly dismissed after about 20 minutes of racing. I had a decent 3rd row call up and with the strong headwind on the main straight I was just planning to sit in. I did this to perfection and on the small little rises I stood and got around some people to end up in the first single-track around 15th. I moved up steadily through the first lap to find myself at the head of the second chase group sitting around fifth. I decided to hit the front on the main straight and ended up getting a gap on almost everyone but quebec superstar Raphael Gange. Me and him bridged up to teammate eric batty and stefan widmer about halfway through the lap. My sensations were nice and I was sitting comfortably on the wheels. Once we got to the main straight again I pulled through and ended up with just eric and raph on my wheel and we were now battling for thrid with next teammate adam morka about 15 or 20 seconds up. We ended up catching adam halfway through the lap as he had an ill timed flat. The battle was now on for second. Nothing changed until the main drag on 4th lap where I again went to the front and was able to gap my breakaway companions. I decided to try and make this stick but unfortunately I was caught by raph as we headed into lap 5.  Raph and I had a small conversation on the main drag and agreed to work together. We traded pulls most of the lap. In the Last 3 k about the attacks started going but we were able to counter each other pretty good until Raph put in a real strong one I just couldn't respond to. I fought hard for last 2 k and ended up 15 seconds down on  Raph and in third place. This was a really crazy result. Too much crazy really.  

It feels really nice t have such a good result and I'd like to thank my sponsor Barry Near, coach Steve Neal, but most of all my parents and family who have allowed me to continue racing even when things weren't going so well. They believed in me and are a huge part of why I was able to be successful. 

Next up is the boler O cup. My body is medium struggling with a sickness but I hope to still do a good result.