MS Gran Prix

The MS Gran Prix was a wonderful event! Thank you Promoters, Officials, and Volunteers! This race wouldn't happen without you guys!

I got an opportunity to race with Team San Jose this weekend. Carlos Vargas, Heath Blackgrove, and Barry Lee - What a great bunch of guys!

Heath was very talkative guy with a great heart to help someone out. He used to race for Toyota United last year. On the bike I had a hard time understanding his New Zealand accent. The only thing I understood was, Ronnie, to the front mate! lol

I've never really talked to Carlos off the bike before. It was great to get to know him off the bike. The only thing I remember from him last year was throwing a bottle at me at Super Week...haha He's definitely a different guy off the bike, very nice, and always cracking jokes.

Barry - If you were to know anyone, you should know Barry! Super great guy! Has tons of stories that will knock you off the edge of your seat...haha

Race Report:
Stage 1 - Friday night Crit

We started the race with more than 200 riders...It's a night crit! At the beginning of the race the officials advised us to stay to the middle of the road...the edge of the roads dropped off...scary...

As usual, attacks went off but nothing stuck. Finally Heath attacked and a few others went with. That was the break of the night that got away! Heath took the victory and Carlos finished 5th, I was 6th and Travis was 12th. Travis led me and Carlos out.

Stage 2 - 75 mile Road Race:

I have to say, in other states, they don't really enforce the yellowline rule has much as Texas does....lol We had tons of riders crossing the yellowline and nothing was done about it.

The course had a few rollers in it with a slightly long climb to the finish. We had to do 3 laps of a 25 mile loop. The start of the last lap, Carlos and Christian Helmig attacked an got off the front. By this time all the other teams were toasted from attacking so much early on, so that break wasn't going to get pulled back.

We were about half way around the last loop and somehow, Russ Walker, Travis, and I were about 20 meters off the front and I saw a potential opportunity to attack, which wasn't a great move, but I thought it might have been, sorry Heath, won't happen again =). Andrew Dahlhiem pulled the group up to me and he started yelling at me, and I was like, dude, you just pulled the whole group to me...

We were about to get to the last climb and Heath told me to attack up the hill as hard as I could. I did that and the group blew up and Heath and Travis attacked! Got in a break in pursuit to catch Carlos, Christian, and Peter Carey.

Carlos won and Heath was 2nd. Travis was 8th and I finished 11th. Not bad for the day =)

Stage 3 - TT 3.8miles
Great conditions, slight cross tailwind. I rolled the 1080 front wheel with the Sub 9 rear.
The times were real close. Heath won on a Road bike, Travis was 3rd, Carlos was 8th and I was 18th. We were all within 20-30secs of each other.

Stage 4 - Crit/Circuit Race 80 minutes
This was a fun crit. It started to pour down rain on us as we started to line up. I'm talking BIG phat rain!! The rain let up has the race started and the sun came out shining!

In this race, we had the overall wrapped up and the team overall wrapped up, as long as we didn't let anything get away. We just played a little cat and mouse.

Carlos and I took the time bonus halfway through the race. I was hoping Travis was going to get there, but he couldn't get there, so I took it from Christian...hehe

The race was coming to an end and I think we had only about 20-30 racers left out of the bunch. 2 laps to go, we had a train and VW was trying to crowd us and disrupt the train. Before the last lap, Heath, asked me to lead them out on the last lap. Come on Mate! Love it!

Bell Lap! I got on the front and started to hammer it on the backside. I ramp it up to 30mph up the false flat backside. Peter Carey tried to attack on the right and I went to pull off and block and Heath covered his attack. I looked back, Heath, Carlos, and Travis, all together and a gap after them, so I jumped in behind those guys...I was cramping by this time...haha

We took 1st, 2nd, & 3rd for the day and I finished 8th. Not bad after a lead out!

We won the Overall Team:
Heath - 1st
Carlos - 3rd
Travis - 4th
Ronnie - 13th
Barry- 21st