Ocala Stage... The End of 2008

So its October and we are still racing our bikes in Florida� As we finish the season off I was heading into the final weekend high up in the Florida Points Standings and looking to jump into the 6th spot. We finished in style with a three event stage race which consisted of two road races and a short time trial.

The road race on Saturday started a little mellow, I did my signature early attack hoping to try and bring some people with me. This was a failure. I decided to sit in at that point and see what happens as we had a time bonus sprint in about 5 miles. As we're rolling into the bonus sprint we went up a hill and then downhill towards the line, the last mile to the line were strung out and nervous! Chris (teammate) and I were in great position about 5th and 6th wheel coming into the hill. Suddenly, Chris and another rider began bumping shoulders and next thing I know Chris was on the ground, along with half the field. One of my other teammates somehow got ran over by the motorbike, did a full flip and landed on his feet running! I ended up taking 2nd in bonus to Grant Potter(Herbalife), who is flying coming off Master's Worlds!

Despite some late moves the race was doomed to end in a field sprint. I figured with my time bonus I was sitting pretty, I came up the hill 3rd wheel and was rocketing on the sprint when the wheel in front of me sat up and I became boxed in. Took 7th in the stage, 3rd in GC. Chris decided to pack it up after that since he was pretty banged up.

Next up the TT, which was 5.2 miles� It was hilly so extremely hard to get a rhythm. I ended up losing a minute by the end. I still put in a good time at 10:10� But it surely wasn't the 9:02 Bobby Sweeting(Toshiba-Santo) had posted! So going into the last stage I was 14th in the GC

The last stage was under 50 miles and it was pretty steady all day, a few attacks early showed that not a lot of people were interested in getting off the front. A few times I ended up off the front just when trying to string it out. As the race developed into the later laps, splits started to happen. I found myself into a 6 man group with all but two of the top 10 GC contenders. Another split occurred and I looked at the Herbalife rider since I knew he was protecting the overall lead for Grant Potter and he seemed content letting those guys up the road.

Soon after we got reeled back by the field it was pretty much an all out chase for the next 2 laps by Herbalife and Toshiba-Santo. I was pretty content watching these guys do all the work and stayed towards the top 20 guys to insure there would be no splits. As we entered the road back off the circuit, Grant Potter and Bobby Sweeting were throwing down and the break group was insight. I saw my chance develop when a few other riders including a Toshiba rider and myself attacked. We bridged up to the guys with about 1 mi to go and were driving it. I came into the corner third wheel and was waiting for a massive acceleration to happen, but never did. So I went from about 350 meters out and was able to hold everyone off! Taking 7th in the GC was also great!

Its always best to end the season with a win! Thanks to Robby Ketchell and CPT for keeping me fast all season. I have acheived all of my season goals and more with the best guidance I have had during my career.