My first foray into crit racing!

So Sunday was my first crit race... a dismal, drizzly morning in Belleville, IL for the Ardie Miller Bicycle Race. It was 25 minutes plus 5 laps of pain but I survived it... finished strong even though I was dropped by the pack of 10ish Cat 4 women. The juniors raced simultaneously so I did finish with some of my students.

I grinned big every time I came around... must have caught me about to flash it ;)
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Tonight was our second race... we did the Tuesday Night Worlds practice crit in Carondolet Park in St. Louis. It's a nigh perfect course... gorgeous rounded corners, flawless pavement, beautifully swept. The field is a little gnarly though since the C race is a beginners practice crit with a lot of weird braking and people swerving. Still our high school kids did a great job holding their lines, bearing down into those corners and fighting their way to the top of the climb. Our senior Jack got 1st place and one of our sophomores, Louis got 4th place. So proud!

During the last lap I sprinted my rear off in an attack, fought up the hill (my girls on the team kept up! woo!) and then passed those girls in a Mark Cavendish style sprint across the line. It was awesome. Very nearly puked after crossing the line though.

I am excited. I am really enjoying this. I love seeing my DBF every time I come around. It's the first time anyone ever has cheered my name (helps to have awesome team families that come and watch our races). I love the renewed confidence I have cornering when I'm in a race. I love watching the field move together. I can't wait to come back and do these practice crits after my big ride this summer. It's going to be a whole different enchilada.

We'll be back at TNW next Tuesday and then we have the O'Fallon Gold Cup later in May. So awesome. :cool:

Sounds like fun! Good job!

Sounds like you had a lot of fun!

It's a LAS helmet... whatever model costs about $100. Fits my super oblong head perfectly :)

I'm hoping some professional pictures of the race will surface :)

Another beautiful night for a race yesterday. Tuesday Night Worlds in St. Louis! Things were going swimmingly... my one female racer and I hung together for the first 25 minutes but in the first of the three extra laps I saw that one of my boys on the team had crashed and was lying in the grass. He is a first year rider/racer and cornered too fast and wound up hitting the outside curb and laying his bike down. He smacked his eyebrow pretty hard, splitting it apart, and had serious road rash on each of his knees and elbows. Thankfully there were no signs of concussion on site-- Lucky for him his father is a neurosurgeon and his mother is a pediatric surgeon so they checked him out and then brought him home for stitches.

Hopefully our last race of the season will be crash free!

Cat 4 crit race in the drizzle??? Been there - done that - no more rainy day racing for me in crits - those lines and corners are sliiiipery!!!! Be careful. (cav like form requires you to be in your drops) :eek:

Oh trust me I was in my drops! That day it was beautiful. Two beautiful weather races and one crummy one! The picture is from the first race where I wasn't sprinting for much of anything ;) It was slick and cold!

So last weekend I raced in the brutal O'Fallon Gold Cup Criterium. The race was at 9:45 am, but temperatures were already reaching the upper 80s. Add to that the course is just murderously rolling with an uphill start and finish. Most importantly, I didn't finish last and finished right in line with my team captain Emmy and another local female racer. Our field was fewer than 8 and there was never really any pack. Tracy, who won, lapped us near the end, but she was all by herself. The others never lapped us I don't think.

Here's me suffering up the hill!
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