Annual Dairy Queen Tour of Columbus(cat 5)
(8/19/2005 to 8/21/2005)

"Are there Blizzards at the feed zone?"
Phillip Shama

The five race was great. I had only raced crits before so this was all a first for me. Saturday morning it was myself, Clark Whitely, Philip Trender, Nigel, and Doug Baysinger. We all decided to sit back and stay with the group as to save ourselves for the time trial. Well it was a very hot afternoon. Clark had to bail cause Nigel happened to point out to him that he was bleeding from his nose. I got a flat in the middle of lap two and rolled the last 3 miles on a slow flat. Doug fell off the back on the last lap. Philip Trender threw his bike at the line to take 6th (I think) ahead of Dan Ries who is now going to join the team so that does not happen to him again. We regrouped at Subway to stuff our faces and get ready for the time trial.

Philip Trender aka DJ P had a great TT and put himself in 3rd over all. Not bad for his first year of racing. It was a good end to a long hard day in the sun. Nigel, Clark, Philip Trender, and myself went to eat in Sealy and invited Dan (who is/was on another team) to come eat with us. I think it was that dinner that got him wanting to join up.

Anyway as we all started to trickle back in for the crit...minus Clark, we were talking about protecting Phil's 3rd place as 4th and 5th were only 12 seconds or so away. DJ P wrote down their bib numbers on his hand to remember them. LOL Our feild started off just under 60...by 4:45 on Sunday we were down to 28. Doug and myself were both ready to lay it out for Phil as our mishaps in the RR killed our GC chances anyway. But we did not think about the battle for 1st and 2nd. They were tied. So from the very first turn it was on...30mph down into turn one. All but 12 were shelled by lap two. Doug and Nigel were stuck behind the ones who got dropped and just could not bridge up. It was probably only 10 minutes into it but every time we would come out of turn 4 I would be looking for 5 to go. When 4th place dropped behind me (I was rolling last in the group) I backed off a bit from the pack and then jumped up on the other side of the road....leaving him gapped and having to do his own work...he did not make it. Then 5th almost went off the road when some one went down on the inside of turn one, he made it back up...I hesitated in it all and I did not. But our new friend Dan was there for Phil even though he had not yet joined the team. Philip stuck it in and kept his 3rd over all. Our lap average and fastest lap time were all faster than the 4 race...it was more like the 3 race times.

That was the fastest crit I have ever done...the first time trial, and first road race, first stage race basically. I say the 5s rock...except for the suck ass times we get to race...I guess its good motivation to cat up quick. You could see your breath in the morning when the Pro/1/2s went off. Ok, not really, but compared to the heat we had to race in...I will be back next year in a new team kit as a 4 ready to represent and have a Blizzard or two!!!