BTR and HInes

This weekend was rare occasion to race in my own backyard. The BTR criterium is less than a mile from my house and laps around the Engineering Building where i spend most of my time from Sept thru April. The course is fast and fun and usually windy. I went out a little too aggressive in the race. I spent the first half attacking and bridging to anything dangerous. I ended up missing the winning break but my team was well represented with Rob, Meurig and Jim all making the move. Rob won the race and Meurig was 3rd with Jim coming in for 5th. The next day was the Hines Park TT. I entered the Individual as well as the 2man event with Meurig. Last year I finished 3rd in the IT and Rob and I won the 2man and broke the record. I showed up late to the event and had a lousy warm up. I felt horrible and didn't feel opened up and couldn't get my heart rate up. I rode the race 2minutes slower than last year and finished a disappointing 7th. Meurig had a good day and finished 2nd by only 4 seconds. We started the 2man with winning and breaking the record in mind. We spent 25min beating each other up and lots of pain. We not only won, but beat all the 4 man teams as well as all the 2 man teams and broke the record. It was a great race and lots of fun after it was over. It felt good to get another win even if it wasn't exactly what i was hoping for. All in all it was a pretty decent weekend.

On the up and up

Today was the classic Ada Criterium in Ada, Michigan. The course was set up a little bit different, but the race was great and exciting. Coming of a long break on the bike. I wasn't sure how I would feel. I shot my first bullet off bridging to a break that I knew was dangerous. It contained Priority Health rider Sven Howard, Derek Witte and WMCR Jason Switlowski. I knew I had a good chance to make the bridge but unfortunately Derek Graham from PH tagged my wheel and wouldn't lend a hand in the pursuit of the break. After 4 laps I blew up pretty hard. Derek jumped accross while I went back to the field. After the break lapped the field there was a chase group off the front containing my teammate Meurig and 4 others. Since the break lapped they were racing for 5th place. I attacked and bridged to the chase group bringing Sven Howard along who had just lapped the field and this put him up as the easy winner of the day if we stayed away. With PH having the numbers Meurig and I sat comfortable and chilled. As the race wore on I began to get a little tired and wasn't able to give as good of a kick as I would have liked. I ended up 9th on the day, with Meurig getting 6th. We placed all our guys in the top 20 which was a pretty decent showing. I am starting to feel better and hopefully a win is not too far away.