Hellertown Crit

[NJBikeGal]

As a newbie to racing this year, my goals were pretty simple to start - finish a road race and a crit. I had my first chance at the crit finish last month, but flatted out of the race after 5 of 15 laps! But, I finally made my goal at the Hellertown Crit in PA on the 26th! And what a race it was!

Imagine...a course less than 1/2 mile in length...32 laps! As I told my friend Andy..."It's only 128 corners!" I had 6 other teammates at the race, so we thought we might be able to do some controlling of the pace and the race, etc. We knew that we had to watch out for one rider from Saucon Valley named Kristy (she rocks). As expected, Kristy attacked. As was NOT expected, she attacked from the starting line! She took off like a dag-gon bullet and we barely saw her for the rest of the race. At one point, she had 30 seconds on the pack (essentially a half a lap). We managed to pull her in to 11 seconds, but never quite catch her. As many spectators said afterwards, it was the best women's race they had ever seen. We worked our butts off the whole time. It was GREAT! I managed to finish 9th (just out of the money - they awarded cash for 1st - 8th place!), but we had 4 teammates in the top 10! All in all, a great race and a fun day! I can finally check that crit finish off my list of goals for the year...on to the stage race!

[cosc]

NJrider, you did great on your 1st crit. Way to go.

[BikeMomma]

Ha! I like that: "It's only 128 corners!"

Good job on finishing your first crit and doing so well!! 9th is awesome! Keep that momentum going for the next race.

Speed rules!
~BikeMomma

[ohmyspokes]

Nice job!

That's a great result for a new racer - much better than I ever had in my first season.

-Kristy (yeah, that one)

ps: Sturdy Girls Rock!

[NJBikeGal]

Hey Kristy!

You were awesome at that race! Wow...what an inspirational ride!

Keep on rockin' it out, girl!

[ohmyspokes]

Hey, thanks!

[ohmyspokes]

I just found this on my PC. Post H-town.

NJBikegal smiling it up after a stinking hot race. Who knew we'd bump into each other again online?

[equus123]

Kristy - did you do High Bridge? If so, how was it?

[ohmyspokes]

I decided not to do High Bridge. If I had known about it earlier, I would've done that instead of the Watermelon.

Ah well, there's always next year.

[NJBikeGal]

Hilarious photo! That was really a great race...and a tough one, too! How did the Watermelon crit go? What's next on the schedule for you? You too, Equus? I'm heading to Lancaster this weekend for the Cargas Crit. I wanted to do Peiffer Hill, but it doesn't work with my busy schedule (ha!)! Sounds like a GREAT course though...really technically tough.

[ohmyspokes]

Watermelon Crit was OK. No one got away, so it was a sprint finish. I came in mid-pack. Small field, but all strong women.

Next up: Peiffer Hill. You know something about this course? Willing to share?

This is my first year doing most of these races, so I've been getting to them super early to pre-ride the courses. Maybe next year I can sleep in.

I'm going to skip Cargas. Good luck! You've got a good wheel with Sally in there. Maybe we'll be hearing about a S.G. trifecta next week...?