b.i.k.e./ River City Bicycles, by Cyclisme (WORD-RCB)

Rapha Jr Stage Race 

By

 Dey'Shaun Lee

Getting up early and traveling to the Rapha NW Jr Stage Race, hosted by RAD Racing was just the beginning of an action packed racing weekend for Cyclisme Jr's and and parents .

Our start to this three stage race, was a brutal 12 mile individual TT in the Elma Washingtion wind.

Like John has always tried to teach us, your start separates the men from the boys, it was either you had a good start or you didn't.
Because this was an Elite Regional event, new faces that we couldn't yet match a speed to from Byrds, Rad, and Audi, were exciting to race with.

It was important for us to be seeing the competition that was National Caliber and who was not as tough.
 It isn't as easy to tell as just looking at the bike that they are on.

After the 12 mile TT they Jr's were lucky to be able to come back to a camp sight with plenty of food, courtesy of Karen and Trey Beggs, Lori Bernardini, and Chris O'Neill. . i have to say i was nice to be able to cool down after the race and come to a picnic table full of chili, fruit, scones, nuts and special made sandwiches.

After this race I was again reminded a good warm up is super beneficial to going good in a race. With great support from parents and teammates, we pulled it off. But some of these team are really together, and it supports their warm up. If you don't believe me ask Kent, he is the expert of this stage racing stuff.
After racing with these West Coast elite racers and talking to a few of them I really started to admire them and started to work with them in Criterium later that day.

One things is for sure, I am really proud of our team. Even without all the equipment, on another state's ground, in a different governing body, we always seemed to be in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time.

Our team was classy and rode well, while we learned a lot in our first Elite Junior Regional Event, and my first Stage Race.

Thanks Word-RCB!