A fun Crit.. Really?

You have some guys like Rick and Kevin F. who enjoy Cirts.. I have to say I'm a Road Race guy... I prefer some rolling hills.. over Crits's with there tight corners and guys fighting for position on every corner. Turns out Tim had a crash(Unluckly involving a Car and a guy walking a dog...He's doin okay now) and wasn't able to compete at Mt Nebo. Red Roses was nice enough to move his registration to the Great Grandview Heights Crit. Bryan and I decide what the heck it'd be a good workout to go and support Tim in the 3/4 Race.... Glad we decided to as it was one of the best races in terms of course, very nice 1 mile Crit right in the middle of a tree lined neighborhood. We also did a great job working as a Team and all finished in top 10ish(4,10,11). Bryan pulled an aggressive 2+ lap time trial at the end of the race which pushed up the pace and kept the big sprinters from making their moves at the end.. Tim and I chased with the 8 riders in pursuit of Bryan.. Unfortanely Bryan got caught with 50M to go but Tim ended up winning the field sprint just behind the 3 man break..

Next year were going to bring some more guys! .... If we had one more guy we could have probably pulled back the break.

Mt Penn and Mt Nebo(Hooray for the Climbers)

If you know me then you know I'm kinda small.... I really don't feel that small, but in the last several years it's become obvious to me I'm less then average size. In the world of cycling that gives me little choice but to become a climber.. I mean at my size you really can't duke it out with the big boys in the sprint, they'll spank you down like a little school girl.

So I'm happy to say the last two races(Mt. Penn and Mt. Nebo) have been right up my alley and on my "A" priority list. As a team we spent the 2 weeks before these races doing extra hill work trying to push are workouts so that we climbed over 4000ft per hard workout. On to the races....

Mt Penn is the tune up race for Mt Nebo. Mt Penn is raced in Reading and the course is a 3 mile loop around the Pogoatta/Fire tower on top of Mt Penn. Race day was not very nice and the rain began as soon as we started. Let me tell you its no fun going down a pot hole filled road in the rain with 75+ other riders... The 3/4 race was 10 laps and the pace was pushed each time up the hill by some young guys on Tri-State Velo.. . Turns out that I should have raced the 4/5 as it was only 7 laps.. I fell off the pace on the 9th lap of the 3/4. As a team we all ended up with respectable finishes.

For Mt Nebo however I stuck with he 4/5 race as each of the 3 9 mile laps includes 1100ft of climbing. Nebo is considered one of the 10 hardest amateur racing courses in the country so its a race of prestige. Congrats to all the team he competed. For me it was my best finish of the year a 3rd place! We had 3 guys in the top 15 n the 4/5 race so once again we had a good day.