I've always thought winning a state championship is cool. Today I won my 4th MN State Crit Championship ('00, '02, '04, '08) and could not have done it without Pellis. Our team was down in Chicago so that left the two of us facing off with something like 7 Grand Stay riders. There were some interesting strategies going on that allowed me to pretty much sit on most of the race.
Blah blah blah...5 laps to go Ian Stafford attacked and got a gap on the field. I rolled to the front to slowly reel him in, as expected, Doug attacked on the hill with, I think, 3 to go and got a small gap. I found Pellis and asked him if he had legs to win, he said no. I asked if he could bring Doug back, he said yes. Game on.
Paul got to the front and began a Dale Sedgwick esque chase (if you don't know what that is, then I'm not going to tell you). On the last lap, Paul timed catching Doug perfectly, right at about 250m to the finish (at the bottom of the hill). Due to the uphill finish, I felt I had a better shot at holding off someone rather than coming around them. I jumped hard, eased up through the last turn, and took the win free and clear.
On a day I was worried about not having a full team, turned out I only needed one guy. Thanks Paul.
Blah blah blah...5 laps to go Ian Stafford attacked and got a gap on the field. I rolled to the front to slowly reel him in, as expected, Doug attacked on the hill with, I think, 3 to go and got a small gap. I found Pellis and asked him if he had legs to win, he said no. I asked if he could bring Doug back, he said yes. Game on.
Paul got to the front and began a Dale Sedgwick esque chase (if you don't know what that is, then I'm not going to tell you). On the last lap, Paul timed catching Doug perfectly, right at about 250m to the finish (at the bottom of the hill). Due to the uphill finish, I felt I had a better shot at holding off someone rather than coming around them. I jumped hard, eased up through the last turn, and took the win free and clear.
On a day I was worried about not having a full team, turned out I only needed one guy. Thanks Paul.
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