AT&T Austin USA Crit #4
P/1/2
Austin, TX
6/16/2007

Joseph LaFico

Racing with the big boyz is awesome!!! for those that missed the AT&T crit, I feel sorry for you...You must put this on your calendar for next year!!! For the Last 4 years this event has been getting better and better and continues to be one of the highlights of my season.

Here are some thoughts that I just shared with my coach. I'll add that the crouds were amazing as it was joined with the KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD festival. There were people cheering in masses on the streets and even from the balconeys of the bars (cant tell you how many times I hear cheers for LaFico!!)

Here's the excerpt to the coach:

I gotta say that I am very happy with last nights performance and wanted to share them with you. After some reflection and time to really absorb the action of last night I'm VERY encouraged about things to come and learned a few things as well.

After having my full water bottle bounce out of my cage in lap 5 I got a little nervous. I only had half a bottle in the other...But then again I'm a "the bottle is half full" kinda guy. At that time I was rolling in the top 20 and figured I had hydrated so much before the race that I would be OK.

So throughout the race I kept smiling in astonishment that I was rolling so close to the front!! I even went in a break (halfway into the race) and I was only one of 2 amateurs in the break. It got shut down after a lap but it was the point that I went with something and I had to make a huge jump across to them....and it felt good. That was the lap right after I even considered contesting a prime lap. (we had gone into the 3rd corner and the pack had slowed, I rolled inside and ended up in 5th position or so and thought about going, but then I saw Kremke rev it up and decided to be conservative)...That did not sit well with me because I thought I actually had a shot and thought to myself that I was not happy just letting the race dictate my moves to me...I wanted it to be the other way around...not be a passive racer. It was the mind game battle of "when is this race going to blow my socks off vs. I'm still here and I'm not hurting near as badly as I had imagined".

Anyhow, with 8 laps to go I was feeling the ever so slight cramping effects of no fluids (even asking Benz if he could share some fluids) No go there:) But I figured I could definitely manage and I did. As we crossed the Start/Finish line with 1-to-go. I goosed it a little into the turn thinking that if I could roll around a few folks I would really be in the money as I had more than enough energy/ability to hurt for only 40 secs. I took a bad line and skipped the rear wheel a bit and dropped my chain...game over...I got it back on but had lost an ass load of positions. At that point I was sitting somewhere around 15-20 position I think...I was a little bit of a blur...

So what did I learn?

1) get me bike tuned up before a big race...I new it was not operating correctly and took it to the neutral support before the race...but it would have been wise to have it dialed in all around (i even had to mess with my brake calipers during the first 10 laps or so...the rear was rubbing somehow!! yeah, that was not the time to screw with that stuff)

2) Chill the "F" out!! That race just showed me that I have the talent and ability to roll with the big boyz. So although I can hang I need to be smart about when to move up and such. My last move was out of panic, not of sound mind. If I would have thought about it, I could have moved up on the little rise and the flat section before turn 3...or I should have made my move earlier with 3-5 laps to go.

So that's the story of my first P1/2 race (and there were some MAJOR PROs here from Navigators, HealthNet, Toyota United, AEG-Toshiba, and Inferno (A&F develpmental team), VMG develpmental team). Dang it's fun rolling with people who can blow your socks off...It makes you that much better as you rise to the occation.