State Fair Crit

Last night’s crit was so much fun. Cat 6 really knows how to put on a good race.

The women’s race started at 5:15. There were 8 of us that showed—a reasonable turnout since it was so early and a chance of rain. I believe we were all cat 3 and 4’s. A few things made me nervous about this course. 1. Corners 2. Surviving 40 minutes of full out racing vs 20 something at Opus. Although, with 8 people strung out the corners weren’t bad and the course was pretty much flat so the 40 minutes wasn’t hard it was just long. I think we did some were around 24 labs which was about 12.5 miles with an average of 20.2 mph.

I did a bonehead move. At the start I put myself at the end of the string and quickly realized that the girl in front of me wasn’t going to last. After a lap I jumped and caught up with the first five. Half a block later they attacked. I stuck on for a few feet but they kept attacking to break us up—I didn’t know how I would fair for 35 more minutes of them trying to shake me off. I surrendered to their attacks and started working with one girl. A few laps later she wasn’t able to stick on my wheel so I jumped on another girls wheel—we worked together the rest of the race taking turns pulling each lap. I came in 2nd for the cat 4’s (out of 5) and 4th overall.

The race had sprint laps very three laps, but they included ninja sprints. You didn’t know when the ninja sprint would happen until you crossed the line and they played a few bars on an electric guitar. The guy that was playing was dressed up as a ninja. The devil was there—who I found out is the lawyer for Quality Bike Parts. A Specialized Angel was there as well in a white dress with angle wings along with the Big Hair Superfan. It was great for us spectators—they weren’t around when us women raced.

Congrats to Kent Throlson (LSC) on an awesome race. On the last lap of his race he pulled back two racers on his own into the peloton that looked to have a clear lead to win the race.

Our very own Jorge has made the homepage video for the Great River Energy Bicycle Festival (Nature Valley Grand Prix). Check it out! If you don't know who he is, he's the spectator helping out a rider that fell.