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Now, if I only go as fast as Taylor through those streets in Esch/Alzette, Luxembourg...

Some Pics from Joe Martin

Joe Martin wrap-up

Man, that was a hard weekend. After Peter's awesome ride on Friday, which put him in 1st GC and the loss of Andrew due to a mechanical, I was the only team mate he had left to defend his lead over the weekend. I am not a big fan of Saturday’s road/ circuit course and after this weekend I dislike it even more. It was super hard! Of cause everyone tried to attack Peter asap and we didn’t even make it onto the loop when the on slaughter started. Knowing Peter, I tried to set a steady tempo at the front of the pack, especially over the climbs while keeping tabs on the other contenders and keeping the breakaways close. I ended up sitting at the front of the pack for most of the day and even ended up in a breakaway at one point. For good measure, I also put in some attacks to not give everyone a free ride, after all, I was sitting 4th overall so by making the others chase Peter got a free ride and I didn’t have to react to other rider’s attacks. It turned out we did a good job. Everyone was too tired at the end that Peter actually managed to ride away from the pack within the last couple of miles again (how they could let him go I do not know or understand) and he solidified his lead before Sunday’s crit. I came in with the pack, still sitting in 4th GC but man, I was tired.

With Peter now leading by a solid 22 sec over second place and myself only 8 sec out of second, we approached the last day with two goals: first and foremost, we had to secure Peters spot. At the same time, knowing how hard the crit course at Joe Martin is, we were also eyeing second GC for me. We rode an aggressive race and Peter’s GC was never in real danger. With one lap to go, Peter himself went to the front and put in one of his signature one-lap-pulls-that-blows-away-your-mind and got me into the last corner third wheel. I was pretty tired at that point and couldn’t quite unleash the power I needed to get up the finish climb in first but it was enough to finish second. That’s 7 sec time bonus right there. When I looked back, I saw that we had a small gap to third… It would be close. They ended up scoring third place 1 second down on me but that would have put me at the same time as the second placed guy in GC and because he had had the better TT he would have stayed second. Fortunately for me and thanks to Peter’s outstanding lead out, there was a split in the field and second and third GC got caught on the wrong side of the split.

So, to make a long story short, I moved up to 2nd GC while Peter stayed in 1st!

Now I’m back in Dallas and, as of 4 pm, still in bed. I’m “slightly” tired but I guess that’s ok. I’ll be back on the bike tomorrow, but for today, I’m just gonna chill and enjoy the win. Maybe some Braum’s later tonight… That actually sounds really good right now.

Hope to have some pics from the weekend up soon.

News from Joe Martin

So here we are after Stage 2 of the Joe Martin Stage Race and we have something to celebrate: Peter won the race today - solo of cause - and is now leading the GC! He was sitting 5th after yesterdays TT. The plan for today was to just sit back and see what would happen. 110 miles are a long time for events to unfold. Andrew got a flat and thanks to some "awesome" wheel-changing-action, where he lost about 2:30 minutes, he didn't finish today. I was a little more fortunate when a spoke on my front wheel broke and I needed to get a wheel change. I didn't loose too much time and was able to catch back on. So with a little less than 10 km to go we got to play out our little tactical game we had layed out before the stage: I was to attack first, maybe get away - but the likelihood of that was pretty slim - but mainly to give Peter a chance to counter as soon as I got caught. It worked perfectly and Peter was off the front solo for the last 6 km. I made sure no one would pull him back and covered moves. I still managed to come in 5th of the day, barely missing top 3. It would have been nice to finish in the time bonuses (top3) but Peters win compensated for that.

The only unfortunate thing about the whole situation is that we only have two guys left in the race: Peter and myself. Sooooo, tomorrow will be a hard piece of work...

30 minutes to the start of RR 1 at Joe Martin

Just wanted to let you know that we are still alive and kicking. Made it back from Speedweek last Monday and we are at Joe Martin right now.
More soon, hopefully tonight.