Momentum Crit Series #4

This was the last race of the series. The start time moved to late afternoon, after the Tantalus TT race in the morning. The crit course was a little different than before, and less boring. They added a dog leg type of turn before the start finish line. Some parts of the race was a little wet - which made for sketchy turns and slick painted surfaces.

The tradewinds were blowing as usual, and gusting up to 25mph on the open flightline. We rode into the wind through the start-finish-line. The tail wind on the back side, made for a nice recovery section for the heart rate, but not necessarily for the legs. Still, I was feeling strong - despite racing every weekend for the past month. About 10 minutes into the race, there were a few IT&B guys that were ready to make a get away from the front with the tailwind. I could sense that they were getting bored with the pace. I decided to take that initiative, and give it a go by pushing the pace, not really breaking away, but to make an attempt to string out the riders and wake the field up a bit.

As we approach the water we make a wide sweeping left turn into the wind, then another tight left, then a right, into the wind again. They left me up there through all the turns, until one guy accelerated by me through the start/finish area. I waited for a few guys to go by, and when I saw a wheel I wanted I jumped back into the pack to recover. Russ had thought that I was done after my pull, and I'd be too tired to get back into the group, but I was fine, and managed to stay in the field without struggle. The chemistry of the race seemed to change after all that commotion, and things got more exciting, but no one or no group really got away, at least not for long.

Since this course had three different turns going into the finish - I knew that if I positioned myself well, I'd beat my friend, Spence. pictured above riding next to me. He'll whip my butt any given day, on a straight out TT race, but not this crit race, and not today.

Russ is looking on in the background, as my teammate, John, and I blast through the wind to the finish line. I finished 11th. overall in the men's field.