Solo flyer taken at some point when I was feeling good.I was pretty psyched to head up to Grafton, WI for the USA Crits/Tour of America's Dairyland Giro d'Grafton crit yesterday. Val and I loaded up the truck and hit the road after being able to sleep in! One thing I really like about racing at national caliber events - women P1/2/3 typically race in the afternoon. That's good for me since I normally suck in the morning.
We arrived and were promptly informed that our teammate Stacy had won the W3/4 race earlier in the day - very exciting for our team! There were about 65-70 women lined up for the P1/2/3 event. I'd had a good warm up and was feeling great. I knew that if all went well, I could probably place well. Things were pretty aggressive from the gun with a fair number of primes and point sprints. I even won some USA Crits points. For a while I was away with Kori Seehafer from TT1 but we were reeled in at about the 30min mark of the 60min race. Her teammate countered and managed to stay away, being joined by a Metro-VW rider not long after.
We arrived and were promptly informed that our teammate Stacy had won the W3/4 race earlier in the day - very exciting for our team! There were about 65-70 women lined up for the P1/2/3 event. I'd had a good warm up and was feeling great. I knew that if all went well, I could probably place well. Things were pretty aggressive from the gun with a fair number of primes and point sprints. I even won some USA Crits points. For a while I was away with Kori Seehafer from TT1 but we were reeled in at about the 30min mark of the 60min race. Her teammate countered and managed to stay away, being joined by a Metro-VW rider not long after.
Stacy in the P1/2/3 race. She did a great job and rode smart in a big, strong field.There were a few bridge attempts and some efforts to reel the break back in but nothing ever got organized enough to make any kind of impact. With about 8 laps to go I had a conversation with a Vera Bradley Foundation rider about chasing things down but they weren't interested and were content to take their chances in a field sprint. At that point my main objective became maintaining position going into the long final sprint. The last turn on the 6-corner course is less than 90 degrees and somewhat off-camber so I knew it was important to be near but not in the front. Things got a bit bunched up coming out of the turn but I didn't panic - I knew that I'd have time and space to make up any ground lost early on.
Val, playing it smart.
Val, playing it smart.As things wound up a hole opened and I went through, straight to the front and moving fast as hell. On the line I was third in the field sprint, fifth overall. I was very pleased with my result - there was a lot of horsepower in the field and a fifth place finish is a strong result. Val had good position in the end but got caught up behind some junk that caused her to roll across 22nd with Stacy a little farther back. In all, a darn fine showing for the Bulldogs! I'm really looking forward to doing more racing with my team - such great girls and excellent racers.
Special thanks to Grafton native John Walker for his fine camera work! Thanks for coming out and cheering for us, John. Always good to see a familiar face in the crowd.
Beyond that, I guess this helps my head get back on track a bit. I'm still at the zoo but at least I'm seeing things that I like. Not sure what the plan is for next weekend. There's a 40K TT and the state championship crit in Peoria. I held the crit title a long time ago and it might be nice to wear the jersey again....
Special thanks to Grafton native John Walker for his fine camera work! Thanks for coming out and cheering for us, John. Always good to see a familiar face in the crowd.
Beyond that, I guess this helps my head get back on track a bit. I'm still at the zoo but at least I'm seeing things that I like. Not sure what the plan is for next weekend. There's a 40K TT and the state championship crit in Peoria. I held the crit title a long time ago and it might be nice to wear the jersey again....
