Athens Twilight Criterium

So I'm super stoked about my performance in Athens. I made the winning break and took 4th in the sprint. See what the real journalists had to say about it:

Cyclingnews.com

Velonews.com



I knew this race would be pretty tactical. You hear stories, you know, about people starting in the back and never seeing the light of day until they cross the finish line. I promised myself before the race started that that wasn't going to happen to me.

After the scramble to staging, the scramble to the line, the call ups, and finally the scramble to the start line, I found myself in the middle of the group. I knew the first few laps were going to be critical. If I didn't make it to the front as soon as I could, I'd be wasting energy. The race started out super fast. I managed to get to the front in about 5-7 laps despite all the accelerations (why, Lord, does he keep calling out $100 primes!?!?). Once I was there, I tried to keep an eye on things and not let any critical combinations of girls (Aaron's, Cheerwine, Colavita) get away.

I don't even remember when the break went, it's all such a blur. I covered an attack and the next thing I knew, the announcer was saying, "This might be the winning move, Ladies and Gentlemen." I looked behind me and WOW, he was right, there was a pretty substantial gap there.

I worked well in the break, perhaps too much. I remember my coach yelling, "don't do anything stupid!" after I'd been pulling hard on the front for awhile. The sprint was really bumpy and I definitely wasn't prepared for all the skippings around my wheel did while I was trying to go as hard as I could. I took 4th out of 5 in the sprint in front of Tiffany Cromwell from Colavita.

My director was really happy about my race. I enjoyed it and enjoyed racing with my teammates for the first time. I came back home to Gainesville with some money in my pocket, the biggest sprinting bruises I've ever had (see below), and exams to look forward to. I'll keep you posted.


Kinda looks like someone's been givin' my arm a little love...