July 3, 2004 – On Monday (June 28) I flew home to Toronto from the Road
Nationals in Kamloops, B.C. and once again returned to my demanding regimen
of one hour rides in the hopes of fully recovering in time for the CHIN
Picnic race taking place on Thursday, July 1. On Tuesday I was feeling a
little rough around the edges, and the same on Wednesday. But finally on
Thursday the legs came good. We have a really great sprinter, Tim Lefevbre
on our Jet Fuel Coffee team – a rider that can hold the leaders jersey at
Milwaukee’s Super Week has got to be a good sprinter. Our plan was to
follow the moves all day long, hopingto come up trumps with the right
combination of our riders in the final move. Our team was really strong for
the race, with four guys that were capable of winning out of a break and
Tim sitting back as our trump card for the finish.

Four of our guys did a fantastic job of controlling the race all day:
Thorben Wieditz, Matt Hansen, Ryan Roth and Josh Hall. These guys rode the
front all day and still managed to ride in the lead out for the finish,
impressive. With ten laps to go Tim made the call that we would start our
lead out for him with five laps (about five kilometres) to go. At five laps
to the team got together at the front. As we tried to get organised it was
little chaotic at first as we weren’t going super fast, and we started to
dial up the speed.

There were six of us pulling through in a nice steady rotation, trying to
go fast enough that people wouldn’t be bothering Tim as he rode our wheels.
Coming into the final lap there were three of us left to lead the team into
the finish. Matt’s brother Jeff Hansen did a superb job through the back
stretch swing off just as we reached the second last corner, at which point
it was my turn to pull. Tim had told me during the race that he wanted it
super fast through the last couple of turns, so I opened up the throttle
full on as I hit the front. Jamming on the pedals I gapped Josh a little
bit and behind I heard Tim shout “let him go”. Hearing that I didn’t look
back but just went full out in the eleven to the line. Crossing the finish
I looked behind to see Tim throwing his hands in the air, it was a one-two
finish for the team and we had garnered ourselves bragging rights for
another season.

The best part about the CHIN Picnic is that it is a great social occasion.
All kinds of people come out to watch and before and after the race it is
a just a constant stream of hellos and greetings. This year there was a
great contingent of Jet Fuel supporters that came out to cheer on the team
and thanks to everyone for coming out!

If the rest of the season is as much fun as these last few weeks it is
going to be a blast!


Andrew Randell, 2002 National Champion, rides for Jet Fuel Coffee
www.jetfuelcoffee.com