Welcome back, your dreams were your ticket out. Welcome back, to that same old place that you laughed about.

Well the names have all changed since you hung around, But those dreams have remained and they're turned around.

Who'd have thought they'd lead ya (Who'd have thought they'd lead ya) Here where we need ya (Here where we need ya)….

9 months since my last crit and I’m finally back. Kinda feels like coming back to school after a long summer break. First day and I’ve got 8 periods in the Tour De Villas 30 plus? Andy, Rudy and Tom were all in school as well. Let’s do it!

1st Period – History

What do you get when you have 4 teamates and a bunch of solo riders? A slow race! How do you combat that? Line up the train at the front. How do you break spirits? Jared gets on the front and drives the pace.

2nd Period – Gym

Field flies by and xXx goes back to work. Rudy has been riding with us at the track and is not shy about doing work. He showed that here as he tried to keep the pace up and make others work. Tom also did a good job as well.

3rd Period - Physics

There are 20 riders in a field. Andy takes a flyer and brings three riders with him. They are riding at 27 mph and the field is riding at 24. If the remaining riders increase their speed to 26 mph, but the wind increases to a NNW 5 mph crosswind, at what time will the sun set? Jared: I don’t care for this question so I’m going to respond that when Andy gets caught I’m gonna take a flyer!

4th Period – Calculus

About half way in I go all in. Why? I have no real idea other than it was the instinctive thing to do when your teammate gets caught. Gap goes up quickly. I’m not known as a breakaway artist so I know they are letting me dangle. But I also have 3 teammates back there so I know Andy and crew are making them work to catch me. 2 ½ laps off and I get bridged to with the field only like 100 meters behind. A Panache rider bridges and rockets past me and I have no answer. Time to get sucked back up.

5th Period – Recess

They call for a preme of pain relief cream. I don’t think I need that but Andy apparently wanted it. Fun and games and good times. Too bad he got nipped at the line. Counter attack launched and the field is breaking apart. I’m on the wrong side of this gap, but I solider on and eventually get back on.

6th Period – English

Subject Verb Direct Object: Race is slow. Next class please!

7th Period – Spanish

Como se dice “Go faster or I’m going to sleep” en Espanol por favor? Unfortunately things wouldn’t pick up until about 3 laps to go.

8th Period - Drivers Ed

You and two vehicles are in the fast lane doing a decent pace. Three vehicles make an illegal pass on the right. What do you do? A) blow your horn and tell the head vehicle (Rudy) to go faster. B) Go with the illegal move and hope that the cops aren’t around. C) Do nothing and ride it out? Umm, I think I like B as this is 2 laps to go and the end of the race!

Unfortunately, the move was a little too much for me with the work I did earlier and my “limited” form. I held on for as long as I could but when we hit 1 to go there was nothing but vapors in the tank. C'est La Vie!

I set my goal for this race as simply “seeing where my form was” as I had no idea where I stood in comparison to last year. Ultimately, I think I’m decent but still a ways off from being where I could be. No worries, it will come back with time. Our guys rode hard and that is something I'm more proud of.