Driveway double podium with Matrix crits in sight
There was no win last night at the Driveway despite Wenger and I going second and third on the evening. The evening began with a handful of aggression and some fine prime snagging by our man Wheeler. The real racing began as Wenger set off with eventual winner Sol Frost on their bid for the win. They were safely away with about 30s in hand when Wheeler again stormed to a crowd prime win of $37. Immediately after passing through the start/finish area monthly-series leader Stefan Rothe attacked hard to go across to Sol and Wenger. After a spectacular clipped-pedal save, I joined Stefan and witnessed him firsthand bring back the lead duo after about 3 laps of all-out bridging.
Once we joined the two leaders there was no cooperation and the lead group stalled out. As we received our lapcards, we were joined by about 6 or 7 riders, including Wheeler. Sol made a quick attack which went unmarked and suddenly with 4 to go he had a sizeable but tenuous lead. Wheeler did a few hard attacks to chip at Sol’s lead but there were no further counters from our group. Inside of 1 to go Sol’s win looked like a lock and Wenger hit out with a half lap remaining. No riders attached to his wheel and quickly our group was racing for third. I sprinted from the last corner and secured third on the evening.
It was an easier effort compared to the past several weeks while the results were similar. The night was a perfect lead-in to the weekend where we will be racing consecutive 90 minute criteriums on a tight, flat course. Though disappointed not to have won, we know being the champion of the weekly crit does not necessarily a weekend winner make. Our team will be hungry to reverse those results each day at the Matrix Challenge
April 24th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Sol dug really deep for the “V” & I do mean deep. The power he derives from riding the nose of his seat is amazing!