@Ian One of them, anyway.

@Shonak Exactly.
Also, you doubled the count!

And I took to it like a fish to water. After an afternoon spent reading up on techniques and watching sprint stages from the Tour, the Giro, and the Rás, I felt ready to challenge my teammates. The first sprint to the next set of traffic lights I lost because I went too early. The second one I narrowly won. The third one I easily won. By the tenth go, everybody was sick of me beating them, especially because I was much younger and much smaller than most of them. By the time the race had come at last, I was standing at the starting line again, reflecting on how much had changed since that day in July, when I first took part in a bike race, and first won a bike race. I closed my eyes. Heard the signal. And gave it my all.

@Shonak That's the plan!

@mvhoogdalem I do hope so

@Sutty That's what it's there for.

@Ian Nightmare scenario. Unless, maybe, Jack could attack?

They say that time goes slower when your pumped on adrenalin. I don't think that's true, because the nationals seemed to go by in a haze. Before long, I saw myself passing the finishing line for the last time, and the pace was getting harder. Luckily, we had a few good sprinters on Team Dublin, so they were all about forming a lead out train for me, after we did a little head-to-head competition on the one and only day of training we had, which I managed to win rather easily. So there I was, on the rear wheel of some huge sixteen year old, who I couldn't even identify properly from the back, waiting to launch my final sprint. Our train was a long way back, but I knew I could still pull it off. This was it. Time to put everything I knew in theory in to reality.

Shonak wrote:
Sprint 'em down!

Shonak wrote:

@Shonak He's looking strong so far.

@The Rider Yes, he's a natural, but i think every winner here will do Ireland proud

@All I crashed my bike on the way to school today, and as a result my right arm is in a cast, so i can't type properly, so the quantity/length of reports will drop of for the rest of the year. I hope you can understand that.

When the finish line was coming closer and closer, and nearly everybody else had already started sprinting, I finally went my self. I was making ground fast, but would it be enough?
It wouldn't be for the win, but I finished a magnificent fourth place. And this time, I was sure I had gotten the attention of the scouts. And sure enough, on the way home, my phone rang...

“Hello, Jack, is that you?�
“Yes.�
“Listen, you were great at the Nationals. It's too early to say anything specific yet, but we think you're one of the best, if not the best, talent from around here. If you keep it up, we'd be interested in signing you when you're eighteen.�
“Yes, but who are you even?�
“I can't tell you that just yet, but we could meet some day in town, to discuss possible sponsoring arrangements.�

And before I could ask any more questions, he hung up.

@Welker You''ll see soon enough.

@Jesleyh Same.

@Hobbit Shady it is indeed.

@Shonak He ain't not signed nothing yet.