Brentwood Grand Prix

Brentwood Grand Prix was my first big criterium of the season and I was so excited to be a part of it. I had just finished a long day of work on Saturday and still needed to head over to Aram's. It was after 11pm before I got to Predator Cycling and when I got there Aram G. and CJ W. had finished everything they needed for the show booth at the Brentwood Expo. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, I got some good information from CJ and Aram about how to race the next morning, we called it a night and crashed. By 5am everyone was up and ready to head to the Expo. Once there I registered and hopped onto the rollers to warm up before my race at 7am. CJ took a spin around the course with me to provide some pointers and find a sprint marker for me. Keiron, team H&S and I talked before the race to go over some new strategies I had. I really wanted the win, so my teammates dedicated themselves to work to my advantage. I started up front at the line and stayed 15th up in the 50 man field. There were crashes in the first few laps and I got jammed behind one and rolled over someone's bike or leg. The count down for five laps to go appeared, and I began to move my way up to the top 5. I looked around for my teammates and they were right behind me, moving up as well. Keiron got stuck behind another crash at turn one with one lap to go. Rob from H&S hammered it down the back stretch into the last couple turns coming into the straight away. I took the turns wide to shut the door on anyone on the inside. Since I took the wide lane I almost ran over a dog that was running away from its owner. That really scared me  and put me at fourth wheel. The two guys sitting on Rob's wheel both started to sprint coming into the home straight. It really didn't feel like a sprint or a lead out for me compared to training with Aram and CJ. But once I met my sprint marker at the intersection I sprinted and put a 4 bike length gap on the 2nd place winner. I was so happy! I won my first USAC criterium of my season! Aside from the crashes it was a really fun and an easy race. Tim McGee