The past few weekends have given Whole Wheel Velo Club several opportunities for success.  Led by Peter “What Valley?” Warner and Tom “Ride Lots” Draffen, the team has scored victories in the local 540 Developmental Criterium and a second place in the Tour of Lancaster.

Warner captured his first criterium win in the 540 Developmental Series.  Knowing that he was supported by Brian “Now in HD” Stefanish, Warner said his strategy was simple.  He “wanted to attack the p*ss out of the first few laps … to get the guys tired of chasing.”  The strategy eventually worked and Warner found himself in a small breakaway group.  Once the field gave up the chase with about five laps to go, Warner said that “was all she wrote” and he “simply played it smart and took the sprint.”  Stefanish, who had spent his energy disrupting the chase in the peloton and thinking about his new helmet camera, said he “was toast and just pulled out to watch” Warner manhandle the breakaway group.

Tom Draffen took the Whole Wheel show on the road to capture second place on GC at the Tour of Lancaster (Cat 3/4).  Draffen started his assault by working hard  in a small breakaway group during the road race.  Notching a fifth-place finish for the day, he moved into first place on GC after his stellar time trial performance.  Going into the final event, the criterium, Draffen said “I was keeping a good eye on the #2 and #3 GC guys.  Finally a break went up the road that was going to stick … [it] didn’t look like anyone close was in it, so we let that ride.”  Unfortunately Draffen’s math skills aren’t quite as sharp as his riding and one rider from that break was able to edge him out for the GC win by one point.  Draffen, who did recently graduate from college and normally ciphers pretty well, took second overall.  Unfazed by the surprise ending, he summed up his entire racing philosophy by saying “Ahhh… c’est la vie.  For a race I really expected to just kinda roll up and do a TT, I’m pretty stoked.”  He will, undoubtedly, be even more stoked when he grabs the final point necessary for his Cat 2 upgrade.