Spring Fling Crit #2

Made little gain from last week's 10th place effort. Legs felt real strong. It was cool (42°F) and windy again, so the field was a little smaller and the pace was quite slow. My legs were twitching and I headed up front on the first sprint lap but teammate Rick slapped the reality back in my and told me to save the energy. Good call! Not much action going on although there was enough strength in the group to cover each of Velotek Zach's attacks - I gotta give him most aggressive rider on the day because he tried several times to make something stick. A Colavita rider headed up for a couple laps to set a good tempo, but it was pretty much a Sunday ride until each sprint lap rolled around. Zach punched it one last time on the last lap into the wind with 1/2 lap to go and I was sitting 5th wheel in the group of 8 of us. Rick & Kyle were together and jumped up to match him, and I first intended to hop in front of them to bust the wind up, but my momentum had me going right past (I think Zach sat up after seeing Rick on his wheel) them all so I pinned it. I should've called out to the team as I went by so they didn't lose any momentum either, but the opportunity was there. Both Rick and Kyle have some great sprinting legs - probably the top in our category when looking at the first 3 weeks' results - and they were right on my tail in no time. I rounded the last turn and held it down for as long as possible, saw the others breaking around me again and watching Kyle time it perfectly for the win. His first sprint lap was perfect, too - just accelerating through everyone at the precise moment to cross that line first. Rick was in good form on the day, too, and took 4th overall.

I then lined up and raced ~14 laps of the 3/4 race... Got dropped after the first sprint lap (Lap 10?) and couldn't get back on. Legs just too shot from the earlier race. It was good practice and gave me a good sense of the next level. Had I not just raced, I may have been able to hang with the main pack (not the 6 that broke away), but I was pleased with getting out of there before the crampede* hit my legs.

I am addicted to this schidt! Next weekend looks snowy. WTF? Time for a 10:30pm trainer session...

*crampede: cråm-peed' — noun. (pl. charlie horse)