Fitchburg

So I went to Fitchburg with not the greatest form..........I was using this race to get ready for L'abitibi and Nats. Also our teams goals were stage wins and the green jersey, so I was hoping to contribute to those. The time trail thursday didn't go so well for the team. I lead the team with an 11th place finish, Ty who was probably the fittest rider from our team, broke his seat so his tt was screwed. I was pretty disappointed with my 11th place finish considering I got 9th in the tt last year, but when i looked at the time, i was faster this past year which just comfirmed that the compo was much tougher. The 2nd stage was a mountian stage, not being much of a climber i knew i was going to race aggresively in the pursuit of some green jersey points, I attacked from the gun and the pack let me go....I was some joined by a hottubes rider and we built up a lead of 1:40....I took the first green jersey sprint. Then a lead moto came up and told us a group of 7 was bridging and both of our teams were represented, cool i thought. Well the 7 riders came up and my great teammate Rob Bush was with them, unfortunatly Hottubes 2 best sprinters were there was well.....We dropped a few dudes in the break when we hit the feedzone climb, and going into the 2nd sprint A hottubes rider attacked and i was forced to chase with a hottubes rider on my wheel. The best I could do was 2nd for that sprint.......I was 3rd on the last sprint which put me 5 points down, but that was cool, the race offical told us at the start that there were points at the finish line. So we hit the final climb and a hottubes guy attacks with a coast to coast rider....Me and Rob just kept steady tempo up the climb, and was reeling the 2 riders in towards the top but couldn't close, going into the last 200meters Rob had about 10meters on me, so I asked him If I could take 3rd so that I would be in the green jersey...I would eventually regret this but at the time the green jersey was our main goal so this made sense. So our team took 3rd and 4th on the hardest stage. At the podium I receaved the green jersey and all was good, until the next stage were I was listed as 2nd in the points compotition, they claimed there were no points at the finish.......I was pissed, I mean they were the ones that announced it at the start, hell they even gave me a jersey at the finish, but the part that made me the most mad was that i took a podium from rob because we thought it would give me the lead, but what ever......


Circuit Race

I'm getting bored typing this so i will be quik. My main goal was the points in this race, and the points leader: Simon, was a big dude and the sprint line was uphill, so i was confident. I easily beat him on the first on, the 2nd sprint i couldnt get his wheel, and the best i could get was third, on the final sprint I once again easily took it. After this I was to drained to contest the finsih so i just cruised in with the pack, while Ty turned in a 5th place finish.

Crit

Simon had 5 points on me, I new the crit would be hard because the sprint was flat. Sure enough the 1st sprint I went as hard as I could, but Simon beat me. After this I knew this year he was the best sprinter in the race so I gave up and sat in the pack. With 1 to go a break was up the way so our team tried our best to pull it back for Ty. I drilled it into turn 3 with Ty on my wheel, I swear we hit the turn at 40 mph, then Ty took over, He got 3rd in the field and 5th on the stage.

I ended up 5th overall which i was very happy with, this is the hardest junior stage race in the country. My form wasn't all there either, so when I'm on top for nats, i think it will be a differant story,

sorry for the long post,
aj