Day 3

Today was the last stage of the Tour of the Valley. It was an hour Crit in downtown Youngstown. I was in 7th overall before the start of the race and I really wanted to race smart in the Crit so that I could move up in the GC. I ended up racing for about a half an hour, then I got a flat tire. Instead of going to the wheel pit, I took my Dad's bike and tried to catch back up to the field. After about 3 laps, the official said that he was pulling me. I told him that I got a flat tire and I was riding until the group caught back up. The official told me to go to the wheel pit and looked at my Dad's bike and asked me, " We're is your flat tire?" I told him that I already exchanged bikes with my Dad and when I told him that, he immediately DQ'd me. He said that he was following the rules and I wasn't allowed to do that. I was very upset at the time because that just blew my top 10 GC result.

Luckily, the Cat 3 field payed out to the top 15 in the GC and I ended up finishing in 11th place overall in the Tour. I had a lot of fun this weekend and I enjoyed racing with my teammates in the Cat 3 field. Every teammate did great and I'm glad we all raced together. Pete ended up finishing 5th overall. Awesome job Pete!! Thom Dominic won overall. He played the whole race perfect, and it was fun racing with him.

Dad raced great today also, as well as the whole race. He finished 11th in the Crit and 10th overall in the GC. He did great this weekend and he only had a few other teammates so it was very challenging in the Master's race. Awesome job Dad. All of the other racers from TLE racing in the Pro, 1,2 race did great too and it was like watching an actual professional race. All 4 races were so fast and I'm looking to maybe upgrade to a Cat 2 next year, so if I'm going to race the Tour of the Valley again next year, I'll be racing with those guys. That's going to be wicked hard.

Great job to everyone who raced this weekend!