Watsonville 3's

Watsonville for me was supposed to be more of a "training race", something not too important, but once I smelled the finish line and thought about winning, in my head I had to give it all. The race started as usual, the whistle blew and we were up the hill. The course at watsonville has a hill that resembles the one from Cherry pie. It also has 2 near 180 degree turns and three 90 degree turns. Since I had already won at Cherry Pie on a similar hill, I knew I would have an advantage in the sprint. That idea was soon gone when a 2 man break went only 4 miles into the 24 mile race. My dad was yelling the time gap (in french) and it soon got to almost 30 seconds. A few guys brought the gap down to around 15 seconds, and I decided to jump across. It took almost 3 laps for me to catch them. We held off the front with about a 20 second gap until about 4 laps to go ( a little over 4 miles). Our lead was wipped out in less than 1 lap. With about 3 laps to go I knew it would come down to a sprint. I sat in and recovered as best I can knowing I would try to contest the sprint. With 1 to go I was 3rd wheel. A rider from SJBC (who happened to be about 6'5" tall-best draft) decided to lead it out for all of us. I very aggressively fought to get on his wheel. Coming around the last turn I was 2nd and with about 300m to go I went. I started my sprint with the best pop I think I ever had, slowed down a bit, and then had a second kick of acceleration with about 75m to go which gave me a clear lead over everyone. I went across the line first. I was so happy. I know that having a pair of Zipp 404's and my Tarmac SL2 frame definitely helped with both aerodynamics and stiffness.

Hopefully I will pull the same result at nationals!

Thanks for reading.