CHIN - wrapping up 3 weeks of GREAT racing!

Monday I flew home to Toronto from Nationals and once again returned to my demanding regimen of one hour rides in the hopes of being fully recovered in time for the CHIN Picnic race on Thursday. Well, Tuesday I was feeling a little rough around the edges, Wednesday as well, but finally Thursday the legs came good. We have a really great sprinter, Tim Lefevre on the Jetfuel Coffee team; a guy that can hold the leaders jersey at Milwaukee’s Super Week has got to be a good sprinter. Our plan was to follow the moves all day long, in the hope of coming up trumps with the right combination of our riders in the move. Our team was really strong for the race, with four guys that were capable of winning out of a break and Tim sitting back as our trump card for the finish.

Four of our guys did a fantastic job of controlling the race all day: Thorben Wieditz, Matt Hansen, Ryan Roth and Josh Hall. These guys rode the front all day and still managed to ride in the lead out for the finish, impressive. With ten laps to go Tim made the call that we would start our lead out for him with five laps, about five kilometres, to go. Come five laps to go the team got together on the front, it was little chaotic for a few moments as we weren’t going super fast as we tried to get organised, and started to dial up the speed. There were six of us pulling through in a nice steady rotation, trying to go fast enough that people wouldn’t be bothering Tim as he rode our wheels. Coming into the final lap there were three of us left to lead team into the finish. Geoff Hansen did a superb turn all through the back stretch, swinging off just as we reached the second last corner, at which point it was my turn to pull. Tim had told me during the race that he wanted it super fast through the last couple of turns, so I opened up the throttle full on as I hit the front. Jamming on the pedals I gapped Josh a little bit and behind I heard Tim shout “let him go”. Hearing that I didn’t look back but just went full out in the eleven to the line. Crossing the finish I looked behind to see Tim throwing his hands in the air, it was a one-two finish for the team and we had garnered ourselves bragging rights for another season.



The best part about the CHIN Picnic is that it is a great social occasion. All kinds of people come out to watch and before and after the race it is a just a constant stream of hellos and greetings. This year there was a great contingent of supporters from the Jetfuel that came out to cheer on the team, thanks everyone for coming out!

If the rest of the season is as much fun as these last few weeks it is going to be a blast!