The breakfast was cold and wet, but oh so good!

So, I was walking to Registration with Baker just before the start of Jeff Cup, I mentioned it wasn't as cold as they were predicting...and it wasn't raining either. When I walked out of the school it felt like it had dropped 5 degrees and it was sleeting. jinx.

Despite the weather, or maybe in light of it, the team had a pretty good day. No doubt the sleet, rain, and cold ass temperature would make sure only the hard would finish the race. On the roll out, I think everyone was in a little bit of shock with the conditions. If anyone told you they weren't, bullshit. I had on just about every piece of clothing I brought, including my winter gloves and two sets of booties.
So, it was 7 laps of 10 miles i think and I was to cover some of the early stuff. So i kept myself toward the front, tried to ride as close as I could to everyone for body heat and waited for stuff to go up the road. I was definately eager to jump on just about anything just to get warm but i never got my legs to turn. I was up the road a few times chasing some small jumps but when I got in the wind I died. Around two and a half laps into it I was pretty discouraged.

However, the Harley team was looking great. We definately had a strong contingent and we always had people on the front. At the start of the third lap a group got up the road. I remember thinking "damn there's a lot of white." Took me a while to get the numbers but we had three of our strongest Dave, Evan, and Russ (all clad in white), with two from Richmond Pro (also clad in white), Micheal Githens, and Nick Bax. Gone Baby, Gone. It's funny how there are just some points in the race, usually not many only one or two, where you are like...damn, i think that's the move. This was that moment and we all knew it.

Break is up the road there is not much to do in the pack but shuffle off and on the front and cover anything interesting. Thats what we did, and when I say we, I mean Jaime and Jose. Dem boys was on the front the rest of the race following wheels and keeping pace.

FF to the last lap. Barrie tries to go on the last charge up the col but nobody goes with him. He comes back on the downhill and Baker takes a bid. Again nobody goes with him. All it takes is one other guy and both times either set could have made it to the end. But no dice. Not to say Keck didn't try though because he was off the front forever and only got caught just before the last turn to the finish.

I asked Ryan how he wanted to play the finish and he said he was going to win the sprint and if anyone else came around him they were lucky. He looked serious. I'm a believable type of fellow so I made it a point to sit on his wheel. LSV got a small train going for the last 1km with a couple DLP guys, Dewald then myself and Todd. Didn't feel like we were going that fast but I knew the last km was the toughest of the entire course so I kept my nose buried. Finish line in sight I got ansy jumped around Ryan about the same time he was going and we both went up the row together and took 1 and 2 in the field sprint.

Then I find out Harley took first, second, and third with Dave Fuentes breaking away from the 7-man break, then Evan (i'm not sticking around here with these 5 guys) Fader broke from the 6-man break, and Russ Langley won the sprint. There should be an honorable mention for this race for whoever the Coppi rider was. He was on the front quite and bit and wasn't afraid to make a few jumps despite a non-jumping peloton.