Super Squadra

School is winding down for me, and as I look back upon a full year at University, what have I learned? Well, first, don’t talk to strangers unless they are irresistibly attractive. Secondly, limit cups of cafe after a Kinsolving meal to two. Thirdly, keep up with school work. And finally, city streets are stunningly slick in the rain! I remember my first time power sliding over a thin film of oil as I made my way to another rainy Driveway last fall, Jeremy Clarkson style. Our city’s weekly criterium seems to have had good luck with rain, and after an early season full of beautiful races at the Holland Racing’s Thursday night crit, it was time to do the nasty. Race in the rain.

Pedaling over to the race this week was quite a soiling experience. My previously white Specialized shoes were brown, my new SRM computer was seeing its first rain ride, and class assignments were still in the fore of my thoughts. However, the registration group was smiling as usual, barely phased by the wet weather, and as I rolled towards the start area, one of them said “Have a good race, Alan”. Hmmm, forget about the weather, I will.

Only four Squadra lined up for the start of this week’s DW. Ian and Steven were at home staying dry and that was possibly a good idea, as the weather was actually really bad. The race took off and soon I found myself trying to quickly learn the lines around the course. I was able to still corner with confidence as I had my Zipp 303’s rubber firmly gripping the ground. Chad and Phil quickly took to the front covering the early moves, before Chad took off for a 3 lap solo effort. I think he was likely thinking about whether investing in a dairy cow would be good economics. Would it? I don’t really know, considering the amount of nature’s natural liquid protein the Haga brothers consume, perhaps it would be…but can Haga stomachs cope with the nature of non pasteurized milk? I digress. Chad was eventually brought back, and at this point I found myself really wishing I had some worn some shoe covers. Wenger had a quality pick, opting for a HotTubes 2010 pair with bread bags below. I wonder what type of bread Wenger ate this past week…? The race continued to be really difficult, and with such small numbers each attack up the corkscrew was quite painful. About twenty minutes into the race, Chad led off another dairy fueled attack that got six riders off the front; Wenger, Haga, Peter Carey, Colt Trant, Eric Benz, and myself. We worked hard to move away from the ‘field’ and quickly Wenger and Chad began attacking the group. At one point with just 5 or so laps to go, Wenger and Colt got a 10 second gap, which seemed to be race winning. However, Carey showed his fitness and brought them back in under a lap. The skies opened just in time for the final lap, which saw Wenger set Chad up for a final 1k attack, again he was brought back by Peter. I came around 400m out from the finish, hoping to be the first into the final slick bends. As the road straightened, I opened my sprint, checking between my thighs to find Peter still fighting for the win. By the finish I managed to pull out Super Squarda’s first Driveway win of the season, with Wenger and Chad finishing 4th and 5th. I rolled over to the registration table and gathered up my goods, said thanks to the happy and dry registration group, and rolled back towards campus.