Spring Valley '08

I have been a little anxious leading up to the Spring Valley race, having heard it was a hilly course. As it ends up, there was one moderately big hill (@240 ft. over 1/2 mile) that crested maybe 400m before the line. I'm still not much of a climber, so I was a little nervous that those with "non sprinter's builds" would run away. We did 4 laps and the first time up, I was pretty gassed but noticed I was towards the front. As long as no one got carried away, I felt like I could at least compete on the hill.

It was great having teammates there again, Brett, Mike, and Tank were all there with Chris and Tank Jr. cheering on the sidelines (thanks for the yells). It makes a huge difference when you have teammates that can cover breaks and help move you up in the peloton, thanks guys!! I'm not sure why, but we all let a lone Dayton guy go up the road and he was never pursued, so we were all racing for 2nd. It was all together as we turned onto the last hill, I was right where I wanted to be as far as marking who I wanted to mark in the GC. I probably paid too much attention to him and some lighter guys were able to scamper away. I was playing the hill conservatively as I didn't want to blow my sprint. Brett got in front of me with @300m to go but I had a hard time catching him at first. I wound it up with maybe 250m to go and passed several people, including nipping Brett near the line (sorry!). I got 5th in the sprint, 6th overall, and more importantly, put time over the 4th place GC and got a few points closer to 2nd overall as well, mission accomplished. I am now 20 pts. out of 2nd with 1 more race to go.