Team TIAA-CREF - 2005

Team Journal Entry - April 11, 2005, by Nate Mitchell

'First Loser'

The North End Classic went well for me. It was abnormally hot for this time of year, even for Arizona. I didn't win but I did get second overall - 'first loser'. The crit course had six corners with a nice climb going up the back side. I knew that it would be a very technical criterium and that it was important to watch the stronger guys in the beginning. Fifteen minutes into the 60 minute race, Todd Wells and Hugh Moran broke clear.

I recognised quickly that I needed to go bridge up to them. They had a decent sized gap over the field, so it took me a good lap and a half to join them. We were joined two laps later by Chris Walker. Wells was tearing our legs off, but the four of us managed to lap the field with 20 minutes to go and I ended up getting second overall on the day.

As the race was an Omnium, I knew I still had a shot to take the overall if I placed high enough in the 90 mile road race the following day. The day of the road race, it was also very hot, a scorching 90+ degrees. I am not used to riding in this type of weather at this time of the year. A break of seven went up the road with a lead of two minutes 45 seconds, with 30 miles to go.

With the help of my teammate Dan Bowman and some of the other higher-placed riders, we pulled the break (which consisted of only three riders) back to within 15 seconds with 1km to go, but were never able to catch them. Only Hugh Moran from the previous day was a threat in the move. My teammate helped to keep me out of the wind inside of 1km to go. I won the field sprint to take fourth place, which kept me in second overall for the weekend, a good result.