Sunday Beautiful Weather and a fun Crit.

Ok so when I signed up for the Lower Providence Crit 3/4 race I wasn't to excited. Anyone who knows me is aware that a)I'm not a good sprinter and b)If its a flat crit I have not chance. So my goal was to get some fitness training. When I found out there were over 100 guys in the field I thought this wasn't a good idea.. That would certainly mean a dicey race with crashes. So when Tim and Bryan said lets move to the Cat 1,2,3 Pro race I said hey why not.. At least I know the race will be safe...Wasn't sure how long I would last but what the heck it would be good practice. We were also joined by Joe Hamilton from our team who is a Cat 2 and a very seasoned strong Crit racer.

The best advice got is basically don't use your brakes(at all) and keep your focus. I think the field had 100+ racers and there were several pro racers including Stephan and 5 of his team mates from the Rite Aid Pro team.

Interesting points in the race.

• The Pro team use radios and it was cool to here them talk tactics.
• 35+ mph doesn't feel bad until you find yourself on the front in the wind... Then it gets a little hard
• If you stay up front as I did its not too bad... The guys watching the race told me that people were getting shelled off the back, but I never let myself get that far back in the pack.
• Everything is fairly friendly and people will let you in the line.. Until the last 4 laps.. Then its team against team and if you don't have team mates its going to be tough to stay up front.

So Tim, Bryan and I all finished the race in the pack and considering it was our first big boy crit we were very satisfied with our performance. Joe got 15th in the race and I tell you it was very impressive to watch him work up through the pack. I hope to get as good as him some day. At one point I felt good enough to jump off the front into a break... But I wasn't confident enough to believe that when it was caught I would be to gassed to hang on... so I wimped out.. Maybe Next time.

I finished the day doing the 30+ race which was 20 Miles .. Again a pack finish for me.. but I did feel good even though I had already done 30 miles 2 hours before.. I know this was excellent training for both Body and Mind.. The races and how I felt have really helped boost my confidence.