One Down, One To Go

What: The New Bethlehem Crit Race

When: Saturday, May 10th

Cat 30 + Age group race. However, my age group was made up of primarily 1/2/3 - including one Olympic hopeful track racer, Nonnie Howard, and Kristy Swope!

Weather: Beautiful day for racing. Chilly as we were warming up, but once you were out there setting pace, it was really nice. Overcast with NO wind.

Course: .89 mile loop with four nice, clean, wide left turns. One little bump up leading into a half lap flat, a shallow descent leading into a flat to the bump. Easy, quick course.

2 Sturdies in the field - Me in the 30+, Jody in the 45+ - we raced together to have a total of 15 bodies in the race.

Race: It was a typical crit, especially with the Verducci team there. A lot of attacking, mostly feints, with some nice easy rest laps built in. There were no premes, so that kept things under control. It was a relatively uneventful race. I took my turns at the front, and even launched a weak little attack at one point. We were coming through the start/finish line. The girl in front was putzing along and I wanted to bump up the pace, so I took the inside of the turn, launched out of it and took off down the descent. It felt so cool to do that. I wasn't really looking to jump off the front, so I settled into a nice pace and let them catch on. The race went on like this for the remainder of the race, punctuated only by Nonni's crash. It was a very strange thing. She was right behind Tricia and they were out in front of the pack. Nonnie looked back over her shoulder, must have hit Tricia's wheel and dropped like a rock to the pavement. It was really scary looking. No skidding, no sliding, just a drop.

There ended up being a bunch sprint to the finish. I knew that I was in a decent position and could possibly end up in the money, so I punched it around the final turn and ended up 5th in my category. Yee-haw! My first Cat 3 dollars (as Jody put it) $30 for the Donut Fund!