TNWC 6/19...a rare win.

Hey...I won tonight. That doesn't happen too often but it was pretty cool how it went down.

There was a strong wind blowing up the final straight and when warming up I thought that if I could attack with 1k to go and get a good gap noone would catch me with that tailwind. I even did the play by play to karl before the race.

So the first 50min was all about doing no work...at all. This was due to the big ride this weekend and my planned taper for it. So I sat in, surfed wheels and soft-pedaled a lot. I averaged 192w (224w NP) for 50min which is ridiculously low for a crit. So I felt pretty fresh!

There were breaks going up the road all night but nothing stuck until a dangerous one went at about minute 45...this played into my hands as the group had to work pretty hard to reel them back in. We were going pretty hard for the last 3 laps so when everything came together at a half a lap to go there was the usual pause....then I attacked HARD up the right gutter (wind coming from the left). I had an instant gap but Francesco was trying to get across....luckily for me he didn't make it.

I did 10s at 600w to get a gap, 40sec at 375w to keep it, then 22sec at 470w to win it. The last 300m I stood and sprinted with my head down and just remember pain and a blur of pavement.

Ella was standing at the start finish ringing her bell like crazy so I got to zip up the jersey and give her a wave as I crossed the line.