Eric's Philly Phyler Men's D Report

The team assembled in Fairmount park for another stellar race in the city of brotherly love. A mild but rainy TTT was ahead of us. Nick A and I were readying ourselves for the TTT and then Christian also wanted to partake. Awesome! Our team was 3 again. We embarked on the journey into the fog and gingerly made our way down the hills to the racing tarmac. Filed in TTT position we take our scheduled pulls and begin to work like a team. After the first turn around the pace got blistering and we tugged on without the support of Nick. He had a couple great pulls in him but TTT are intimidating to say the least. Christian put in some awesome efforts and worked to carry the rest of the pace. We managed to have some fun along the way by celebrating with fellow racers the joys of cycling and giving advice to a flock of geese that wandered into the road. Our last efforts up the hill were epic to say the least. We coached each other up the hill and crossed the line in perfect fashion. I wish there was a picture it was teamwork at its finest. Next time we can work on our speed but it was clearly a fun time. 18th place we took with an average just nipping 21mph. Great effort. I look forward to more TTT's with the team.

The stage was set to have a fun crit. Unlike the previous couple weeks, the crit was a real crit. 3/4 turns, flat, fast and fun. Mine and Nick's third row start wasn't the best but there was plenty of moving to be done throughout the pack and the course was very accepting of this. The pack stayed together for a while as separations were made. I continued to relax through the race and basically gap any breaks in the pack just so I didn't have to bridge up later on. This proved to work out really well as I made my way to the front (yes first wheel) with 3 to go. I know the winner of field sprint crits rarely come off the front so I took my pull and retreated to 4th/5th wheel and waited for my move. Last lap came and so did an attack after turn 1, I was reluctant to attack which proved to be my demise. I let them go and I sprinted the final straight to catch some more victims to finish off with 7th place. My first placing in the points but disappointing because of my poor late race tactics. Nick finished up his D race with a 50th place finish, I have no doubts he will be contesting the front of the pack in no time. Great weekend had by all, yea Philly!