First Crit of the Season

Sunday was the first crit of the year, and the first in a series of 6 that are raced at this awesome BMW test track. See an aerial view of the 1km track here. The two 180-degree turns coming into and out of the wind sucked big-time, but made me realize how far I've come since last year, too.

Unfortunately, there were only 5 gals racing my category, and about 20-25 in the entire race (Cat5, W4, & Jrs). It was a rough race, as I got stuck at the back from the start, and 2 girls (Amy T and Angela) on Sugar got ahead of me. I kept up my pace the whole time, mostly alone, and never got too far behind them. With 4 to go, I finally caught a wheel and caught up to them, but I was too gassed from the effort and didn't even hear the bell, so I came in 3rd. Apparently I did enough work for a water bottle, a pair of socks, and some Gu's and chamois cream. : p

In any case, I know I can do better, and can't WAIT for next week. Plus the first Texas Cup track race is Saturday at Alkek!

There were crashes in the P123 race, and 3 guys from Tilson went down. Slade broke his arm, unfortunately... And Bike Barn's Kremke lapped the field once, and was halfway through lapping it again when he won. I spent the first half of their race admiring Kremke's pedal stroke. It was so beautiful that it was hynotizing... (:

Hopefully I'll have something interesting to say after this weekend!