Boat Street Crit

Report from Michael Black:

My summary – Mack Swell and I are running pretty hot right now. Garage lines up with like 10 guys. Audi has a few, a couple of Bike Salers, a couple of Fred Meyer guys from PDX that didn’t look as fit as they have in the past, and a few others sprinkled in. Small field with 25ish guys. Really no place to hide and it was on from the gun. They rang the bell on like lap 3 and Max surged and showed the field that PCP was in the house and came to take away the goods. Max takes a bottle of champagne and $10. The race was constant attacks from Garage with Max covering most of the first half attacks. At the 30 min mark 5 guys go up the road, Garage represented with two and Aaron Levin in there as well. Max and I had been swarming the front and the break got about 12 seconds on the field. We knew that could be the race so we went to the front and drilled out. Brought that break back in 3 laps. From then on, nothing went away without our approval. With about 8 to go Martin Senkyrk (Second Ascent) makes an attack up the inside on the back straightaway. I grabbed Martin’s wheel and he takes me off the front. We trade blows a couple of times and I just stayed on the front, making sure I had at least a couple matches left for a sprint. I am sitting 3rd wheel with 4 laps to go and they rang the bell for $30. Instead of listening to the brain, I listened to my wallet and went for the money out of the last turn. Just me and a guy from Canadia and he beat me by a wheel. I should have done what Sean Phillips did instead and attacked immediately following the prime. He went away and won off the front. Shame on me. Max hears the announcer talking about Pain Cave contesting the last prime and despite doing a shit ton of work the whole fucking race, he realizes I won’t be of much use for the next two laps and drills it back to the front.

It was fast, it was the longest crit I have done this year (55 min), and it was with most of the fast masters (1-3 +35). Max and I are still ramping for Boise and are form is coming together. Like always, it is about being patient, but I am working on it.

Joe Matava on Wed
Fights on Thur
State Champs on Sun
Then BOISE on Sat, July 14

If you see me on the bike, attack. I need to go fast all the time for a couple weeks.

Raven