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Nick thrilled about his win at the
finish!
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Nick Hand raced in the Gateway Cup
Tour of Francis Park and took the win in Cat. 3!
Here is Nick’s race report to
his coach, “This was the Gateway Cup Tour of Francis Park. 80 man field. Flat
1.9 mile square course. Sat in the whole time on a rider's wheel I know always
finishes well. I was also watching the omnium leader who is from NYC. With a
few laps to go, I finally started moving forward. My teammate Brian had been
waiting at the front for me to come up and give him the go. I was 5th or 6th
wheel with 1.5 to go and started telling Brian to hit it. He pulled on the front
as long as he could and the NYC rider's team took over. There was a little
jostling and keeping position but had tons of energy and no problem holding my
spot. As we came to the last turn a single rider started moving faster than the
rest of the train in front of me so I jumped on his wheel, finally leaving the
wheel I had been shadowing all day. We took the turn wide which was what I was
hoping for. The rider in front of me did not jump and I did not want to
hesitate. I jumped hard and was quickly in the 53x11 and could hear the wheels
trying to come around. I held a bike's length for the win.”
Nick’s sprint finish!
Nick’s second season goal was to do
well Labor Day weekend and he really trained hard and listened to when to rest
and when to train hard he is an awesome athlete and deserves this win. Nick
raced the next day at Gateway Cup St. Louis Hill Giro Della Montagna where he
placed 2nd in the Cat. 3 field!
Here us what Nick reported back
following the race, “Today was a rectangle crit with the front stretch being a
long downhill and the back stretch being a long uphill. The plan was to sit in
and go with about a half a lap to go. Teammate Mike Rickey has done this move a
few times and it has worked very well for him. The race was really pretty easy
again, not as easy as yesterday but there was really nothing happening. The
hardest part is really not getting over anxious and doing something stupid.
With 2 laps to go the field slowed right where I was looking to attack and I
was hoping it would happen again and I would hit them hard. I am not sure who
went to the front but the speed went up pretty good as we hit the start stretch
and it stayed that way. As we hit my spot to attack I determined that the speed
was too high and I wouldn't get enough of a gap, if any at all. I decided to
grab a strong wheel and wait as long as I could to sprint down the long hill.
Coming into the final turn I swung outside to stay on my fast wheel and coming
out of the turn I hit some hay bales slowing me some. I had to jump hard to get
back up to speed but remembered to sit back down as we still had about 450+
meters to go. My fast wheel got a big gap on me but I had a couple good wheels
to follow still. As we closed in on the line my fast wheel was out front of everyone,
I down shifted and jumped hard spinning my cadence up fast and then stared
dropping gears to keep my speed climbing. I was closing fast and passing a lot
of people. I was able to catch first place, it just happened to be right after
the line, but it was enough for 2nd place. This was a huge result still, as The
Hill is many racers main goal all year. (Mike's) I wish I could have won it for
Mike, but I hope that he is proud of me.”
Nick again did awesome and he wanted
to win for his teammate, Mike Rickey, who I also coach, because on Friday
evenings race Mike had a terrible crash where he broke a finger tore off part
of another finger and has some muscle/tendon damage to his leg and all over
road rash. So my best wishes for Mike on a speedy recovery.
PCG Coach: Bill McLaughlin
