In the photo: Travis Mceuen
Written by Travis.
The first lap was uneventful so going into lap 2 I attacked. Peter Smith came with me and no one followed. We stayed out front for 2 laps or so. This was really just to get the legs up and running and, as we saw the group coming back, I prepared for the counter by just letting Peter pull.
Once we were caught, there were a few counters but nothing hard enough to get a meaningful gap. The 2nd prime lap was announced and Mathias Jacquelin more or less casually rolled off the front with no one chasing. He opened up a nice little gap and kept it steady. He secured the prime and kept going.
After Mathias was out front for a few laps, Vegan Cyclist knew he wanted to be up the road and I wasn’t going to let him go alone. I followed a monster attack of his and was glued to his wheel. He worked hard for at least two laps and I just stayed right on his wheel. It was beginning to become clear that we would catch Mathias and I did pull through very briefly a few times so that he would still be able to work when the inevitable happened.
Once we caught Mathias, we were quickly joined by 7 other chasers, including teammate Mikal Davis! Now we had a group of 10 consisting of 3 TMBDev, this was PERFECT! We all worked well and eventually put a 45’ gap on the field. It was clear that we were staying away.
It was at this point I started skipping pulls preparing for a reduced bunch sprint. With 5 to go, I explained to Mathias and Mikal that they would have to attack to shake things up. With 3 to go Mathias made a nice move. Unfortunately, someone jumped with him and I actually became a little worried that could get away but Mathias sat up halfway through the lap and the follower didn’t pull hard enough and we were all back together. Mathias sat on the front for almost the entire 2nd to the last lap. I told Mikal he would need to attack soon to get the field to chase.
Going through the last turn with one to go, I yell at Mikal to go and he launched with VC following and me sitting third wheel. This was great as both Mikal and VC are tall so I was getting a tremendous draft. I yelled at Mikal the whole last lap and he completely killed himself and even yelled at him to start sprinting from corner 3.
Right before entering the last corner, Gooby Duck's Simon Tuttle suicide bombed us literally sprinting through the corner. I was worried he would crash and I backed off which gave him a little bit of a gap. As soon as we stood up straight out of the corner I was worried that may have cost me the race but I just told myself I am going to win and I cannot let me or my teammates down.
I put in a massive effort and was able to get a bike throw at the line to take the WIN. Mathias ended up with 3/5 primes and finishing 7th place bumping him up to 2nd in the omnium.
We worked very well as a team, made a plan and stuck to it. It felt great to show people we are here for results. As always, we couldn’t do it without the support of our sponsors: Mikes Bike’s, Equator Coffee, Toyota Cycling, Capo, GU Energy, and Absolute Black chainrings.
