By Bruce Grell
5/31/2007

My Congrats to everyone who raced this past weekend, and my hats off to the guys who did well, expecially to Bryan Moritz with our first ever placing at Snake Alley which happened to be a win, On top working his butt off in other races.

Friday night proved to be a great night for the guys in the 5's race, with what sounds like some great teamwork culminating in a to the line finish and a second for Jeff Abel and great finishes also from Dave and Walt. None of that was possible without some of the guys sacrificing their finishing positions for the goal of a win. Too all who participated in that, you have my applause and my thanks for literally taking one for the team.

In the 3's and 4's race I also need to thank the guys who laid it all down for me in an attempt at a win. Peter, with his incredible pack stringing pull and Greg for getting me to the top of the hill with a chance to sprint for the win. Bryan and Mike W. Peter had some great attacks to try to soften up the field on the way down to Burlington but the pack was not going to let anyone get away. I wish I'd finished it off better but, considering the competition, It was a good finish. I'm just never satisfied. As a group we learned a lot about how to finish that race and I think we'll do much better next year, if we can group up together better towards the end and have a longer Dice Big Red Train.

For Snake Alley, great effort by everyone that day. It's the toughest race of the weekend and we had a lot of guys do well. Bryan, Derek and Jeremiah in the 4's, and Kevin W. in the 40+, you guys are tough.

Melon City was a good day too. Great Job to Jesse Leonard with a win and Zach Blair. It was also great to see the Little guys, Alex Grell and Jordan Z. out there sporting the DICE uniforms and going hard in their first big time races. Once again Bryan worked his butt off for me, and I didn't deliver the win, but at least I get to use the crash in the last corner excuse for not cracking the top 5. I ended the day with higher hopes for Monday, because there's no hill in the QC Crit.

Here's my race assessment of Monday, since I got to do more spectating. This is perspective and things that we can work on.

For the young Juniors, they're the youngest of the bunch. They rode hard and Man it's great to see them out there in those little DICE Jerseys. Encourage them all you can, they're the future of the sport.

For the older Juniors; Our guys are new, and still did a great job, the competition they're up against is of National Calibre, and experience and better training is what takes to compete at that level. I look forward to seeing how they do next year now that they know what they're getting into. Again, great job guys.

In the Masters 30-40+, the guys were charging hard as always. Some bad luck prevailed in the end with a late crash from what I heard. We had the numbers to have better control of the pace if we work as a team, and I think that race will go better next year.

The 5's went about the same way, and should be better next year. Good job with the 5th place finish to Jesse.

The Master's 50's is one of the toughest races of the day and my hat's off to you guys. I heard one guy say something about hesitating, and that it won't happen again. That's the spirit.

In the 4's we worked as a team again, and I didn't deliver. I had a little problem with the last crash in front of Casa DICE, that wouldn't have happened if I'd been in better position and had managed to stay on Greg's wheel. I didn't allow me to get to wheel #2 in time for a good pull to turn 7 until halfaway down the backstretch. You know that hesitate thing? Ditto. Thank you for the help my Cat 4 brethren. I owe you guys.

All in all a good fun day seemed to be had by all and I learned a lot of things. Here are some of them.

1. You can't expect people to know what to do unless you tell them. You know, The ASSumption thing. After some talking, it was easy to get people on the same page. My apologies for ASSuming things.

2. You can't win them all but it sure is fun trying. I'm gonna keep trying, cause I love it when DICE wins, no matter who it is.

3. Teamwork is what gets good finishes, Most of the time the other is luck. Sometimes you just have a good day too. I would rather finish 10th with a good plan that is executed, than 5th because I was lucky enough to pick the right wheel. My case in point, being on the back of the big red train made me feel like DICE was invincible at that moment. If we executed better, we may have been. Either way it was a defining moment for me.

4. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the guys that I had to work with this weekend. I will return the favor someday by delivering a win or finishing dead last after I attack or pull the sprint til I puke. this is aimed especially at Bryan and Peter and Greg.

5. We need more rides like the Hummer practice. We learn more there than anywhere I've trained besides the Oval. It gives us chance to take on different roles, and learn how to work as team and we can talk about it while it's happening.

6. Don't ask someone after a race "what happened". Ask how the race went. If someone sacrifices themselves, they won't have a good result. Try it sometime and you'll never make the mistake of asking it again.

7. I love racing with you guys.

Bruce