Preston Street Crit and where I have been

Well, for those who may or may not have been wondering, I've been really busy for the past month and a half racing my new Kona King Kahuna 29er. Started in early may at Baie St Paul (Canada cup #1). Was an awesome course, beautiful area. I ended up 39th/65. Mid pack but satisfied as the field was strong.
The next weekend was Tremblant (Canada cup #2), same old crazy course as every year but DRY! and FAST! Ended up 33rd/91. Huge field with all the usual top dogs. I was quite pleased with this result and felt really strong throughout.

On to Hardwood(Canada Cup #3) Never expect Hardwood to be very technical but they added in some good new features and alternate lines to benefit those with the skills(or the balls) to do them.I ended up 27th/67. This time the field included world cup rider Zandstra, he only bested me by 14 min. and I beat all my rivals by a pretty good margin--I'll take that and drive home with a smile(and eat Wendys without feeling guilty).

Yet another weekend on the road --this time north of Quebec city--Lac Beauport- beautiful place amazing course, until it started raining and my race turned into cyclocross which would have been ok if my mud packed tires weren't so damn heavy....-Despite it only being a Quebec cup--All the top Quebec guys showed up and dropped the hammer pretty good. I ended up 13th/34 I almost beat ex national Champ Eric Tourville but his skills and experience roll where I slide. Lesson learned (follow Eric rather than spazz out in front of him).

After one weekend in town, I decided to do the Preston Street Crit. So I went and did my first NRC crit on the Tuesday before as practice, felt good and familiar.
I didn't have many expectations--last year I finished 20th in a bunch sprint.
The race was delayed due to a terrible crash in the women's race by Allison Lampi who broke her pelvis.(Wish you a fast recovery Allison).
So we started at 4:10pm reduced to a 1hr + 5 LAPS.
There was no warm up -I didn't even do 1 full lap before they blew the gun and we were off...fast from the get go. I tried to spend as much time as I could near the front, but apparently I was on the front too much as Rodd kindly yelled good tips to me on corner 3 like GET OFF THE FRONT and RELAX..... and ITS NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CLOSE THE GAP...advice taken for a couple laps but then things started to happen. I just thought hey I feel good so if something goes I'm going with it with everything I've got.
So it did go and I went with it we were 4 pretty strong guys co-operating fairly well. I even won 2 primes while in the break!
I gave it everything I had and more in that final sprint but was only enough for 5th...I'll take it.
Felt like a win for me!
Thanks to all who cheered me on.

Update:

Video!