Homewood is a new Superweek location for 2010. I was especially psyched about this because my hometown, Thornton, is situated immediately east of Homewood. I was able to ride to the race venue from my parents' house 3mi away. The course was excellent - 8 turns, completely flat, running through downtown. Some of the pavement was bumpy but not too bad and there was a nice headwind to deal with on the long backstretch between turns 4 and 5.
We got underway with maybe 30 starters. I didn't count how many of us there were so I could be wrong on that but the field wasn't huge which was nice - it made for much smoother cornering in tight spots. Stacy and I were pretty active early on with a few short stints off the front and some work to bring in a couple of early flyers. A break of 3 managed to get away at some point and build an 18-20sec gap. I was tremendously frustrated that everyone seemed pretty content to just let it go. I and maybe 3 or 4 others worked to bring the gap down to 8sec and then everyone sat up and let it go back out with about 10 laps to go. Negative. Even more negative were the riders who literally tailgunned the entire race and then suddenly appeared in the front with 2 laps to go.
As things started to get twitchy in the last two laps I worked very hard to keep decent position. I lost a bunch in turn 6 but was patient, moved up before the last turn, was able to hit it up the left side and finish 3rd in a close field sprint. Not the way I wanted things to turn out - I really wanted to haul that break back in - but not a bad way to finish a long crit. Unfortunately, Stacy hit the fencing on the last lap and lost some skin. She's going to be okay and she rode like a champ - I love racing with her and she learns more every time. The ride back to Thornton was a little wet but there were Chips Ahoy cookies waiting there for me which made it all okay in the end.
Up next is Evanston next Sunday for sure. Maybe something else before then but who knows - trying to balance work and life right now and with good reason, work and life are winning. And I'm totally okay with that!
Thanks so much for reading. If any photos surface, I'll be sure to post them.
We got underway with maybe 30 starters. I didn't count how many of us there were so I could be wrong on that but the field wasn't huge which was nice - it made for much smoother cornering in tight spots. Stacy and I were pretty active early on with a few short stints off the front and some work to bring in a couple of early flyers. A break of 3 managed to get away at some point and build an 18-20sec gap. I was tremendously frustrated that everyone seemed pretty content to just let it go. I and maybe 3 or 4 others worked to bring the gap down to 8sec and then everyone sat up and let it go back out with about 10 laps to go. Negative. Even more negative were the riders who literally tailgunned the entire race and then suddenly appeared in the front with 2 laps to go.
As things started to get twitchy in the last two laps I worked very hard to keep decent position. I lost a bunch in turn 6 but was patient, moved up before the last turn, was able to hit it up the left side and finish 3rd in a close field sprint. Not the way I wanted things to turn out - I really wanted to haul that break back in - but not a bad way to finish a long crit. Unfortunately, Stacy hit the fencing on the last lap and lost some skin. She's going to be okay and she rode like a champ - I love racing with her and she learns more every time. The ride back to Thornton was a little wet but there were Chips Ahoy cookies waiting there for me which made it all okay in the end.
Up next is Evanston next Sunday for sure. Maybe something else before then but who knows - trying to balance work and life right now and with good reason, work and life are winning. And I'm totally okay with that!
Thanks so much for reading. If any photos surface, I'll be sure to post them.
