Boulder Crit Series #3

Got to the race a little late and hurried to get dressed, registered and onto the back of the Cat 4 race in time to warm up. Nothing like 25+ MPH warm ups to get you moving.

For whatever reason, the officials called up a 45+ guy and gave him a 20 to 30 second head start. I was sitting 3rd on the first lap and the head-start guy was up the road. The two monkeys in front of me were looking for a way to drop back in the pack so instead of pulling I decided that attacking and bridging up to head-start guy would be fun. It took me a full lap to reach him. When he saw me come up he said, "oh sweet!" We worked together for a a fair amount of laps before the pack brought us back. After getting caught, I drifted back and took a little rest time. Eventually I was back towards the front spending the rest of the race either hanging on for dear life or trying to move back up. The pack seemed relatively easy to move around in. I had my chance to really move up in the last few laps but lacked the commitment to go around the front edge of the pack. There is something about a lot of riders, especially in the 3s, that keeps them going all the way to the front. They will go up until they find the angled edge of the front but won't pull through. If you have room to get around them and the commitment, you can move yourself into top 5 position without too much trouble. I lacked commitment.

The last lap was pretty furious. I took the inside line and sprinted as hard as I could up the right side. I went pretty early and again lacked the commitment to sprint harder since I was nowhere near top 10. I sat up a little before the line and apparently drifted a bit to the right. I heard a scream not unlike a piglet getting castrated. That was Lee who was coming up on the right. Sorry about that Lee. He and I finished in the middle of the pack. So good race for both. Lee was responsible for a nice collection of attacks and covering some of the pro guy's attacks. That dude can motor.