Metro State TT/ DU Crit

Hey all, what a large weekend of racing for me. My new team was hosting their first race this weekend out at Bear Creek Lake Park here in the Littleton area. We had a real solid turnout for all of the collegiate categories as well as all the open categories. It was a real nice day out, not to cold and not to hot. I raced the collegiate race and did the course in 25:40 which I was pretty impressed with. I found out that I placed 12th, so thats a jump from the week before which I took 17th. Later I did the open category and shaved nearly 40 seconds off of my time. Seeing how I new the course now, I was able to have a good plan going into it. I stuck around all day and watched Scotty Boy and Corey do their TT's.

The next day was the DU criterium at Invesco Field at Mile High. The new time change made the sun not come up until nearly race time. The night before it rained a lot, so the course was a little damp and frozen in some spots. By the time we started racing there was fog everywhere and you couldn't see that far in front of you. I had a good warm up going into it and I was confident at the start. Right off the bat the pace was real fast with the CU guys going real hard in front. I never had great position, and I was sitting in the back of the pack most of the time which is not a fantastic place to be. Then one of the CU kids attacked and the pace quickened even more than the start. So I spent the majority of my race just trying to hang on to the back. The CU kid ended up soloing for the win and winning by nearly a minute. I finished with the chase group and took 12th. I was the only kid on my team that ended up finishing out of the 7 who started. This definately showed that I am the strongest out of all of the C riders that we have, so maybe we can have more of a plan going into next week.

Later that day I went into the Cat 4 race. Last time I did a Cat 4 race I lasted a lap or two tops and got pulled out of the race. They blew the whistle, I jumped on my pedals and off comes my chain. I kept trying to pedal and it finally came back on. I caught up with the pack after a real big effort, and stayed with it for about 20 minutes or so. But that beats how long I lasted in the other Cat 4 race I did. Afterwords I looked at my HR monitor and realized that I averaged 192 for 20 minutes. Seeing as that 182 is my threshold, I knew I gave it my all, better luck next time I guess.

All in all it was a pretty solid weekend, 4 races in 2 days, and im exhausted. This weekend tactically I raced really stupid, but I have high hopes for next week at CU. I hope that the kid who won the crit will move up to B's because he obviously is strong enough to be a B if he is beating everybody else by a minute. Well as of right now my legs feel like Jello, and I'm looking forward to a day off the bike, and to rest a little. As some of you know I got a job at a bike shop down here in Littleton, so I am back to working on bikes again. Well I am off to study for my Spanish Mid-term later today. Thanks to all who supported me this weekend, Ali, Holly, Shawn, Alli, my dad, and Corey for helping me out yet again. Thanks for checking in.