In the photo: Mikal Davis

Written by Mikal.

Still riding high from Chico, the 4s were back in action at Bariani Road Race. We brought out another big, strong team and had a clear plan of action. We assigned roles; some guys would go for early breaks, others would go for mid-race breaks, and if it all stayed together we had Jacob as our protected rider for the sprint. Peadar was the first of our team to go off the front and managed to stay away for the first of 4 laps.

Once back together, I knew it was my turn to take a shot, so the first crosswind section we came to, I saw a move going and jumped on his wheel. He couldn’t hold it for long, but I slingshotted around him and put in a big dig to get as much separation as possible. Luckily, Jonatan from Alto Velo had my wheel and was willing to work. He is a very strong dude so we managed to get a big gap pretty quickly. Together, our two teams represented about half of the peloton, so there weren’t many riders willing to chase.

HUGE shout-out to my teammates for controlling the front of the peloton and protecting the break I couldn’t have won without them. They had the peloton totally under control and trusted me to keep it together and take the win. Jonatan started cramping on the last lap, so I knew the race was mine to lose at that point.

I ate and drank and tried to keep the pace as high as possible without blowing up. On the final straight away I attacked early but Jonatan managed to bring me back. I recovered on his wheel for a few seconds and threw another attack that finally stuck and rolled across the line totally smashed, but ecstatic to take my first road race win in TMB colors.

I also coined my new victory salute, fingerguns.