The next race report, or two, really. Memorial Day.

So, this was the race I did on Memorial Day. It was also a crit, and I actually raced twice in one day. The first race was the Elite 3's race.

It was a pretty standard four corner, flat crit at a business park, with a field of almost a hundred railing around the course. I was surprised at how good I felt after having been dropped the day before in Auburn. I was going in breaks, chasing breaks, and feeling good. It was a fun race in that the 3's weren't just waiting for the finish. People were almost constantly attacking and counter attacking. I had fun chatting with some friends in the pack, and when my teammate came to the front with two laps to go I was feeling good. Aaron (my teammate) took a good long hard pull on the front for a lap and a half, trying to string out the group and keep me relatively protected on his wheel so that I would be in a good position to sprint for the win. Well, he died off with about a half a lap to go and the group started swarming toward the front of the pack, so I vied for position, trying to stay near the front as much as possible. I knew if I came around the last turn close to the front I'd have a chance. I came out of the final turn in about 15th place and launched my sprint immediately. I hurtled toward the finish as fast as I could go, but only managed to take 8th. Still, not bad. I hung around for a few then changed clothes and headed to work at the bike shop. We were closing early and I was planning on heading back to the race to do the Pro 1,2,3 race.

I got back with just enough time to warm up for about 20 minutes before the start of the race. There were two paid professionals in the race, one from team BMC, the other from team Bissell. This race was much faster and more aggressive than the first race. The pro/semi pro men are much fitter and more willing to work hard for the win. There were lots of hard, fast attacks with guys trying to break away. I was able to go to the front of the pack and try to help block when one of my Cat 2 teammates was in a break. Then, later in the race, I was able to go to the front and do some chasing to try to help bring back a breakaway that didn't have any of my teammates in it. It was really fun to finally get to use some team tactics! I felt particularly good when one of the Cat 2's complimented my racing, especially when I thought about having raced once already and worked for four hours in between. I wasn't sure at the start if I'd have the fitness to finish, but clearly I wasn't going to have a problem with that. When the final sprint came around no one was off the front, partly thanks to me, but I had spent my legs with my previous efforts and ended up rolling across the line in 74th out of 100. All in all, a pretty fun day. It made me really want to race with the pro/semi pro field. The riding is so much faster, and everyone is riding nearly knuckle to knuckle, and guys will shoot into gaps with total confidence. It's so exciting! It's the way I was taught to race by my coach.