13th Jun 2008
Svein holds lead through the Criterium - Stage 4B
Tour de Beauce - Stage 4B, St. Georges Criterium. We were nervous and ready for tonight. Randers said before the start it was the first time he's had the jeebies before a race in years. Svein was confident in the boys. We wrere afraid of what TT1 might throw at us. And it came on lap one with a bang. Six riders went up the road including Chaddy, Frank the Tank and Colex. Dangerous. We tagged it with Cam, Pinner, Jake and the young man.
Pinner and Cam promptly dropped back to help control from behind. We didn't panic and rolled the move back in 4 laps or so. The counters went. Again Sparkesse, TT1, Jittery Joes, Tecos had riders in the move. But this time the move was filled with riders who were not immediate GC threats. Perfect. The boys settled in to a tempo that would let the break roll away a bit. This neutralized the teams that were the threats. The guys rode awesome.
As the S-team let the break roll out to 40 to 43 seconds and the laps ticked down it came time for the teams not represented in the break to decide if they wanted to play for the stage. Amore E Vita had missed the move and with stage 2 winner Metlushenko they had the fastest man here. The A&V guys came forward to start to chase. But their chasing tempo was actually slower than the guys… and the gap moved over a minute. Amore blew and dropped back in the chaos before the guys took the front a small counter move of four moved up the road.
The break lapped the main field with 4 or 5 laps to go. Fine with us, that is exactly what we wanted. The main field was pulled with 2 to go. The 14 riders in the two break groups fought out the finale.
Tomorrow is another threatening day. Svein is super-confident and riding on another level. When the guys see that, they have as much confidence in him as he has in himself. And honestly that makes the whole team ride at another level. We're hoping to ride that mental high through Sunday. We're not counting it done yet, but we up to the challenges the other teams are going to throw at us.
Sidenote
Read about the full race story and see the results on Canadian Cyclist
Please pass our congradulations to Svein from his friends & most adament admirers from Nova Scotia
Ruth & Paul Fahie
Great teammwork!
hey what's the story about the '13' tattoo that Svein is sporting?
Svein was team mates with Mat Decanio on Prime Alliance. After Matt came clean for doping and started stolen underground he adopted the upside down 13 as a symbol against doping in cycling. Svein's tattoo is inspired by Decanio, but for him it stands as a personal symbol against doping and for the fact he's proud that through all the crap he's been through in cycling, he never chose to go down that path.
cool. thanks