Iron Hill Twilight Criterium

I was pretty happy about my performance at this race, that is, my performance up to the sprint finish. I was in every significant break, one consisting of all of the big girls (Laura Van Guilder, Theresa Cliff-Ryan, Rebecca Larson, Sarah Caravella, Brooke Miller) + me. If you go to usacrits.com, you'll see that these women are currently ranked 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 7th in the USA crit series. This particular break started after a prime sprint. Rebecca won and I stuck on her wheel around the first turn. We worked together to stay off, but Laura and the rest bridged after a couple laps. Once they got up to us, none of the fast women were willing to work together and some of the girls were able to catch back up to us. Oh, well.

The rest of the race had exploded. By 10 to go, there were, I'd say, about 15 of us left. I had a horrible position around the last turn and I couldn't make up for it in the sprint. In the end, I got 10th. I was a little upset about the finish, but there were other, more important things to cheer me up. Rebecca introduced me to Theresa Cliff-Ryan (national crit. champion and winner of the 2007 tour of Sommerville). Theresa was impressed with my ride and might be able to get me on her team (Verducci Breakaway Racing) for the Tour de Toona, the $50,000 + stage race which is coming up after nationals. Then, after Toona, I'm coming home to Orlando for a couple weeks to see my friends and get ready to move into my new apartment in Gainesville. I'll also probably going to get to do some of the Orlando group rides that I haven't done in over a year. I'm looking forward to beating up on some of the hometown guys. Watch out!