A Couple Crits

This weekend can be summed up in three words: Texas Roadhouse Domination. Not only did they have the strongest riders, but they were 8 strong for both races with 40-50 rider fields. They placed 1,2 in both crits, as well as a bunch of other top tens. It was like racing against the Virginia Tech cycling team...

The Troy classic was on Saturday. A 9 corner crit with smooth roads, this race proved to be alot of fun. The race was 50 laps, or about 50 miles. About a quarter way into the race, a break went off with a bunch of TR guys and I felt that this was the one. My teammate Alex jumped off the front with me on his wheel. After his heoric effort, I pulled through and managed to bridge up to the break with the help of a couple of other riders. This break, however, was not the one. I need to be more patient.

About half way through the race, everybody locked up on the first corner, and I slammed into the rider in front of me, taking a spill. It wasn't a bad crash however, and I was able to walk back to the pit, get a new wheel and jump back into the race. While I was getting a wheel change, the winning break went off the front. I tryed to bridge up when I got back into the race, but I didn't have the power to do it, so the break was gone. I road around in the very back of the peleton after that, coming to the front to win a $25 cash prime, then falling back again to where I was for the finish. 26th for the day out of 40 some riders.

The Tour de Burg's course was not as nice. It had a wicked chicane, into a slippery brick section (with missing bricks). The crit had 6 normal corners with bumpy roads all around. This was definitely not my favorite course. For this race I decided to sit in for at least the first half the race, which ended up being really easy because for most of the race there was one Texas Roadhouse guy off the front and team Inferno were doing tempo to reel him in. It started to rain in the middle of the race, which made me very nervous, and I tried not to think about what it would feel like to fall on my road rash. There was one crash that I saw- a group of 6 riders went down on a slippery corner, but I managed to avoid it and stay upright. With one lap to go I was in bad position and was looking to move up. Coming into the second to last corner I found the courage to dive the outside to get behind the texas roadhouse train and a RGF rider in about 6th position. I held that all the way out off the last corner, but I stood up for the sprint, and my legs had nothing. 10 guys passed me before I got to the line, I ended up 16th for the day.

The next race coming up this weekend is the Indiana Pancake stage race. There I will compete in a Road Race, TT and Crit on Sat and Sun. Thank god, I am getting tired of crits...