St. Valentine's Day Massacre Crit

Another weekend another race. Today’s race was in Brea, CA and on a race course that I actually crashed real badly on two years ago so there were some bad memories there. However, since my last crash in Superweek I have decided that I am done crashing and have turned over a new leaf – so on with the race.

The usual local women were in full turnout today with Helen’s and Rock Racing sporting if not full almost full squads. We were also joined by Anna Lang (local racer who now rides for Aaron’s Pro Cycling Team). The women were keyed up to race today and it was aggressive from the start. My coach wanted me to use this race as preparation for the NRC race next weekend so I was to ride aggressively and be attentive. I tried not to let anything get up the road unless myself or my groovy teammate Morgan was in it. Considering there were only two of us, I felt we covered moves well and road aggressive. I got in a couple of breaks but they did not stick. It always has to be the right mix of riders in order for one to get off the front.

A $50 prime was given nearly mid-race through. I launched a huge attack up the hill and into the finishing straight but did not want to fully blow myself for the prime wanting to participate and keep active in the rest of the race so I sat up. Three of us ha d a gap from the field but as I mentioned before, the right mix has to go so shortly after the pack caught us.

It looked like it was going to be a field sprint even though Helen’s launched Jamie Hughins off the front with about 5 laps (maybe 4 laps) to go. There was not really a reaction from the pack however our pace remained high and we eventually caught her so back to field sprint plan. I kept to the front of the race as we entered the final lap. I had to keep accelerating throughout the lap. As we entered the final turn I had good position though in the middle of the turn a Helen’s rider clipped her pedal causing her bike to jump. Amazingly she kept her bike up as I braked hard losing about 75feet of placement. After this little hiccup I sprinted to a 4^th place finish. I road right around the course and Morgan removed one number and then I road about 45 minutes in the men’s Pro race for some speed training. It was a fun day and a great day for training.

Stay posted for more blogs next week while we are up in Santa Rosa!