I didn't have high hopes going into the races this past weekend. I'd had a tough week; taking 46th at collegiate nationals and battling for 3rd in the omnium at Northbrook on Thursday. Monsters was a good course for me. Flat and exposed to the wind, I was able to exploit my racing experience to position myself well and save a lot of energy. xXx had a good showing in the field and we worked well letting people off the front and blocking. In the 4 race, I came into the last turn behind two guys from Recycling. I had assumed that one was positioning to lead out the other, but they pulled a switcharoo on me and let out a huge gap between the turns. By the time we got onto the finishing straight, I had to close 30m for the win. There was a slight head to cross from the left, so I was coming up a foot or two to the right of the leader. In a smart move, he drifted right to the gutter and forced me into the wind for the pass. Ultimately, I tried to throw him on the line and lost by 2 inches.

Fortunately, I was signed up for the 4/5 race immediately following the 4 race. This being the second time that I'd closed all the way to the line only to come up short, I resolved to go as early as possible and challenge everyone else to come around me. The 4/5 race was slower and I mostly just sat in the top 10 wheels directing traffic. As we hit 2 to go, I locked onto the wheel of the Recycling guy and fought people off until the final corner. I intentionally swing wide and opened up the sprint from 300m out. The entire time I couldn't look back. I was Cavendish, not Haussler; so I kept my head down and drove through the line. When the dust settled, I had a pretty good gap on the line. I looked down at my computer and saw 38.5mph, not bad given the wind conditions.

After winning at Monsters, I thought 'now I'm really not going to do well at Fox River'. Hills are not my thing, but I wanted to do FRG to get a sense of my climbing form in advance of Snake Alley. I rolled out with a bunch of Northwestern teammates at 7:30am, set up the xXx tent, and kicked back while the 5’s raced. On the practice lap I felt okay and got a spot on the front line. I knew that it would be a struggle to stay attached on the first few laps, but that I would tire more slowly than the guys pushing the pace. Ultimately, I followed the same formula on every lap: get to the front on the start/finish, drop through the field on the climb, reattach on the descent, repeat. I figured that this would work until the last lap, when the pace would be juiced by attacks FTW. Remarkably, I found myself 8th wheel cresting the hill on the last lap. I was in the 3rd distinct grouping, with 2 in front and two groups of three chasing. My group of 3 was not closing fast enough, so I cooked the downhill corner to jump up to 6th wheel. This group contained William and some other people, but I had my eyes fixed on the two leaders. I knew one of the guys from collegiate and was confident that I had the best sprint. When I scouted the course with Tom, David, and Rudy the Wednesday before, I saw that the place to go was the little rise before the last corner. So, as we were bending around onto the rise, I looked at William and swung out wide. Hammering to bridge 20m to the leaders with a teammate on my wheel, I thought for a moment about slotting in behind them, but I fought the pain and stuck to the plan. I saw the fear in the leader’s eyes as I shot past on the inside. I leaned into the turn moto GP style and barely stayed on the pavement, then gave it everything to the line. Will Nowak was on the side telling me to post up, but I couldn’t understand a word over my ragged breathing. So, I’ve got the winning down, but definitely need to work on my celebrations.

The best part of FRG was doing the podiums. After the skit put on by Brian and Liam at the last team meeting, I had the interview down pat. I stole a helmet, gloves, and sunglasses and gave the best string of clichés I could think of. Thanking my teammates and sponsors, holding a Clif bar, and giving props to RDS cycling and Fox River for putting on a great race. xXx has made the difference for me, so thanks everyone and I hope I can continue to get results in the higher categories.