Ontario #3 Pro 1,2 Race Report

Ontario Pro 1,2,3
Racers: Sergio and myself (Danny K.).
Results: 4th and 18th respectively

Made the decision to come down from SB the night before and glad I did. the course was the four corner variety of Ontario and it was really windy. Started with a decent sized field. Racing with Sergio is awesome. Besides the fact he's amazingly strong he also has a lot to teach. He told me to stay up front, sit in, of the wind, surf the pack and watch for splits and the early move likely to go in the wind.

Sergio was never sitting in, he was always attacking or covering which made my life pretty simple and it was fun to watch. I tried to sit in and surf the pack, staying at the front trying to cover moves that Sergio didn't make (which wasn't often). Eventually a break stuck with Sergio in it about half way through and started with four but a split in the pack created by Chris Walker nearly led to the break swelling to 15. I tried to go across but I hit the head wind section and my chances were less than ideal in making it across. Naturally at that point it all came back together after Sergio attacked the break and drew out 4 guys again and the other group came back. The gap was hanging at 20 seconds so I just stayed at the front to make sure I didn't stupidly miss another move.

The efforts in the wind were not exactly pleasant and we were in the gutter for a significant portion of the race. Apparently Sergio's break-mates were sitting on him in the last few laps and we ended up nearly catching them in the sprint. Sergio took 4th and it was hard earned for sure. The sprint got dicey as everybody tried to fight for Bahati's wheel on the inside. I followed a Socalcyling guy fast on the outside figuring I might as well sprint from in front of Bahati since my chances of coming around him or some of the other big sprinters like Demarchi were not the best. A replay of my collegiate nationals experience transpired and a guy flatted on the inside going around one of the corners and went straight and I had to go wide around him. The sprint hit the headwind and a lot of people died including me as I lost my wheel going into the last turn and in the wide, spread out sprint I pulled out an 18th. Not one of my better results but I'll take a top 20 . It was fun and hard racing and I'm looking forward to the rest of the Spring and Summer racing.

Danny