3 weeks ago was my last race of the season, which was the Giro Di San Francisco on Labor Day weekend. I finished 13th in the pro/1/2 race, that was very challenging. A group flew off the front about 15 minutes into the race and ended up lapping the field. Teammate (and father) Dean LaBerge was one of the 8 and was able to hang out until he lapped the field. He hung onto 8th overall and I placed 13th overall; 5th in the field sprint.
I raced so much this season and I have achieved so many accomplishments and learned so much. We worked very well as a team the entire year and we had fun in the process. We were able to capture all state championships and picked up a silver in the National Time Trial from Eamon Lucas. We then went to Canada for Tour De L' Abitibi in July and were very successful. We won the 1st stage (myself) and had the brown jersey! Unfortunately, I crashed the next and lost the overall, but I still held onto the blue jersey (best young rider). Meanwhile, Eamon, Peter Taylor, and Torey Phillip were all sitting good, waiting for the Time Trial. After the time trial, Eamon ended up being our GC guy, sitting in 3rd place overall. I slipped down to 29th overall. That afternoon, we had a short 50-KM race. Andrew Lanier and I were able to get away about 10KM into the race, and got in a break of 11. We stayed away barely, but we all picked up 30+seconds on GC. I then moved up to about 15th overall, and only about 30 seconds out of best young rider. Satge 5 was the longest, and a wet stage. The roads were slick and at one point in the stage, about 1/2 of the 155 man field fell down due to the slick roads with oil. Eamon and I had crashed. Eamon had a scuff on his chin and was fine, but I wasn't as fortunate. I had a couple really deep cuts and got 5 stitches that evening. I was able to start and even finished 15th on the fifth stage. Eamon was still sitting 3rd overall and only 1 second out of 2nd (1st place rider secured his placing). The last stage was a true smart man's stage: crosswind for first 30km and straight headwind for the next 45km before doing 9 laps in town. I was able to help Eamon pick up those valuable seconds on the road on a sprint point and he placed 6th on the stage. Overall, Eamon finished 2nd, I finished 11th, Peter and Torey were right together about 15-20th, and Andrew and David devoted their results to the team.
After the Tour, I came back home and did some local crits in Suisun, and Santa Clara, and Vacaville. I also won Sea Otter this year in April and upgraded to a category 1 cyclist on the road! I couldn't have done this good this year if it weren't for the fact of my great teammates and support of staff(all of the masters) and supporters and sponsors. Thank you everyone for an amazing year! I'll be back next year for 2011! See you at the races!
