zerailleur.com / Zach Bell

That…apparently is my sound bite for every bike race in the world form now on. The announcer at BC super week said it over and over….”who the hell is Zach Bell” . But in all honesty I don’t mind so much I prefer to be the dark horse. Gives me a bit more to fight for. This last week seemed to be the race of the dark horse. It started off well with the White Rock crit; A solid team effort for a big win that I could add to my resume. But with that race it was from a break and from a position of numbers. A situation that smart bike racers should win 9 out of 10 times.

We struggled a little through the big races…the team raced well but we had minor breakdowns in our execution that lead to podiums that could have been turned into wins. Eager to set things straight manager extraordinaire, Matt Barth called a meeting and the team refocused heading into Delta…and wow…I think it may be working VERY NICE now. I was able to ride to my ability in the hill climb…no pep talk needed…just give’r…as they say. But the Crit was a different story…we where all aggressive but I was a little more reserved than usual knowing that speed might be a key factor in the end. And in the end it was…no formal lead out developed but the boys did all they could to keep Pinner and I out of the rough stuff…coming into the 2nd to last corner I jumped into it fast and had Carin (sp?) Powers come over my right shoulder and Kirk O’bee inside me on the left. Last corner I took Kirk’s wheel and held the inside line. Out of the corner and Kirk started his sprint. No waiting, no cautious tactical moves…Just all out power…what ever I had in me…I guess I learned something from the past few weeks….I WON. And the Team was 100% the reason. After our talk we remembered we can win…all we have to do is trust each other. Everyone on the team can do the job they are there to do…and in Delta we trusted each person to do it. Pinner went on to win the road race from the break the next day…and I followed, winning the pack sprint for 4th. It all came down to Trust. We trusted each other again and trusted our tactics…and in the end we reclaimed control of the races on our home turf. I have said it before and I will say it again…This is the best TEAM I have ever been a part of, but I still think it would be rad if Manager Barth talked like Arnold S. in the team meetings.

“NOW! You listen…Quit yo WHINING…I want you to go out dair and Crush dem. I want to see a bunch of attacks…and I want to see dem happen IMMDIATLY. You see your legs out dair…day are not tumas day are bundles of POWA. If you work togetha we can have a greena California…I mean win da race.”