Hi my name is Oliver. I want to share with you my first win in the elite 4's. Last Friday, just two days more before the Burlingame Criterium I was doing my last hard workout on the trainer and I felt a special energy. The resent changes in my equipment, training, and nutrition had all blended well. It was getting late so I decided I would take my recovery drink and head to bed. It wasn't early, but I couldn't really sleep. In my mind I just kept watching a bunch of top ten races but never a win. I wanted that "S" on the van. I woke up the Saturday, ate breakfast and prepared earlier than usual. I did my stretches and kept eating and hydrating. I was in the zone, extremely focused, I knew what I wanted, but I knew I couldn't want it extremely bad or I would end up messing up my race. On Sunday, I woke up at 5 am and hoped on the trainer for about 10 minutes, a nice trick I learned from a green edge video, which is a warm up intended to wake up the body. I got to the race with enough time to preview the coarse. My ex-teammate Thomas, told me it would be nice if I won Burlingame Crit, since it was my first crit as a 4 a year ago. That was one more reason for me to win, I had to do it!
The race started and I was sitting in the pack not very comfortably. I was losing spaces in the corners as primes approached. A former teammate (Mike Baxter) approached me and like a guardian angel guided me through the race "Oliver you want a result, you better earn one" that really got me going as he said that I heard " five laps to go". The race was on! I moved to second wheel because my former teammate was pulling back the break. I stayed on his wheel until about 2 to go when I locked on Team Webcor's lead out train they took me to about 500 meters to go. I sprinted to stay there and as I placed myself about third wheel coming into the sweeper I knew it was time to make it count. I started sprinting. I unleashed all I had. I could hear the guy in front of me in pain as I came around. It was only a matter of seconds and he would blow up and he did 15 meters before the line. I knew I got him and I yelled "I love you dad" in Spanish and tears came out of my eyes as both hands were up! It was not believable. It just wasn't possible, but I did it! I would like to thank so many people and I truly believe they all deserve a piece of this win! To my coach and mentor Larry Nolan, my parents, my doctors, the crew at Eden Bikes for keeping the bike in shape, the team parents, to my junior and master teammates, and the sponsors for making this all possible!!
The race started and I was sitting in the pack not very comfortably. I was losing spaces in the corners as primes approached. A former teammate (Mike Baxter) approached me and like a guardian angel guided me through the race "Oliver you want a result, you better earn one" that really got me going as he said that I heard " five laps to go". The race was on! I moved to second wheel because my former teammate was pulling back the break. I stayed on his wheel until about 2 to go when I locked on Team Webcor's lead out train they took me to about 500 meters to go. I sprinted to stay there and as I placed myself about third wheel coming into the sweeper I knew it was time to make it count. I started sprinting. I unleashed all I had. I could hear the guy in front of me in pain as I came around. It was only a matter of seconds and he would blow up and he did 15 meters before the line. I knew I got him and I yelled "I love you dad" in Spanish and tears came out of my eyes as both hands were up! It was not believable. It just wasn't possible, but I did it! I would like to thank so many people and I truly believe they all deserve a piece of this win! To my coach and mentor Larry Nolan, my parents, my doctors, the crew at Eden Bikes for keeping the bike in shape, the team parents, to my junior and master teammates, and the sponsors for making this all possible!!
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