Jim Brown, Jason Casebolt, Alex Shapleigh, John Kuplar, Joel Burkland and Dave Schilling arrived on Orcas Island on Sunday to sunny skies and temps in the 80’s. The 2008 version of Freedom Sports Week is already off to a great start.

We checked out the trails on camp and found very little blow down and pretty clear trails. They’re dry and fast. And yes, the Dispensary is intact in in awesome riding condition!

This afternoon we check out the trails at Moran State Park. Tomorrow we see 9 Rad Racers and others arriving for 8 days of awesome riding!

Nobody’s going hungry this year without Worsech at the dinner table.

More to come!

Dave

When I woke up this morning I was very excited about the Crit.  To get pumped I listened to some ROCKIN’ music on the drive to Olympia.  Brick House will always get your blood flowing.

In previous races it’s been me and three Oberto riders, Avi, Colin, and Austin.  The last couple of races they would work me over and take the wins.  Today I wanted to make a change.  My Dad said that one day it will just ‘click’.  Today I heard it loud and clear.

At the begining of the race the pace was very high.  After the first lap the field split and it was Avi, Colin and myself.  Just behind us was my Calvary, Will and Corey.  For most of the race the Oberto team would attack then try to put me on the front.  I covered each attack and sat up when they did.  At one point Colin almost got away.  After the Start Finish Colin launched.  He got maybe 100 feet ahead of me and looked back.  He saw that he had a significant gap so he went into TT mode.  I put the pedal to the medal on the decent.  He looked back a second time and saw me right on wheel.  He almost got away. 

Then a succession of attacks started to come.  The Cavelry were still within striking distance.  Avi and Colin would attack and then sit up.  Will and Corey were so close to catching back on each time they sat up.  That would have certainly changed the balance of power in the peloton.

After a couple of unsucessful attacks from the Oberto collective it became a fight for position.  We went about 2 mph to see who would want to make a move first.   Some of the D’s passed us on the climb.  I just shook my head.  On the bell lap decent we got into sprint mode.  I just pictured myself at Marymoor.

I made my move before the final turn.  I carried to much speed into the final turn and my rear wheel lost traction.  That gave me a chill even on this hot day.  I thought for sure I was going down.  I kept the rubber side down though and continued the sprint.  Colin had taken an inside line and was getting close.  But, in the end I crossed the line with clean wheels and won the race!

Hey Raddies! It’s David (O’Brien). I will be going to camp in Indiana tomorrow for 6 weeks (after the crit), and I will probably be posting about that on here. Keep it up Rad!

-David

The rad blog is back! Check back soon for some posts by the team!