Ready for Nature Valley

By: Sean Sullivan

Stretching out in the back of the van driving north it’s time to start thinking about our next race, Nature Valley Grand Prix. Tulsa obviously was a huge success with Eric’s big win Sunday, but the way the whole team performed all weekend was amazing. We were never caught on the back foot once, and had all the breaks covered. Also Nick, Aaron and our new recruit Jeff had everything we needed, cold bottles, clean working bikes, and team morale was sky high, especially with one Surfy back on the sidelines!

Nature Valley is another race we have a big chance to cause a stir at with the momentum we are carrying. It starts with a short time trial that is restricted to normal road bikes, a huge plus for us having such great equipment. Look for our tt’ers Heath, Christian, Joe and Eric to be up amongst it. The two tight and hectic downtown crits will be a must for us all to be up in the front, and especially Matt and myself will have the locks flowing out the back of our helmets and scrapping it out.

The two road stages are the ones I like most about NV. A little bit hilly but not for true climbers, the wind can get bad up there sometimes which is personally my favorite style of racing, lined up single file on the side of the road. And with teams limited to 6 riders it will be very hard for whoever is leading to control the race meaning a race deciding break could go at any time. Being attentive and represented in every break will be crucial, but like I said I think that’s what we did best this last weekend.

And then there is the Stillwater crit the final day, you either love it or hate it. A 25% grovel up to the finish line each lap, it kind of reminds me of running a crit up and down the roof of your house. Definitely not my cup of tea but I will try to keep the boys near the front as long as I can, I was actually pretty happy with my form in Tulsa coming straight off a 10 day honeymoon. Anyway, back to the drive.

Sully