Elkorn Stage Race-Day 2

12th Place Gold Rush Criterium Elite 3

After the Time Trial we headed to the hotel for some rest and the crit was not until 5:30 in the evening. I planned to take it easy in the crit and try and sit in the sweet spot and then put in a good sprint at the end. We headed downtown about an hour before our race and we got in a good warm up. It was cool to see people from the town out watching us and having fun. I got off to a terrible start because I was in the second row and this guy in front of me could not get his foot in. I spent the first few laps getting into the sweet spot and then the rest of the race I was pretty much fighting to stay there. The crit had 6 corners and the pavement in the corners were beat up so it was interesting and not as smooth as I would have hoped, there were a lot of guys breaking in the corners and that makes for not a very fun crit. We had a good pace going though and it was windy so we were working hard. There were a lot of primes so that kept everyone racing, but I was not feeling good enough to sprint into the wind for a prime so I just sat in. Well about ¾ of the way through the race I felt a tug on my shorts through a corner. I wasn’t sure what it was but someone was caught on me and I just kept going. Well I heard some guys go down and I was alright so that was good. After the race I noticed the guy had left a hole right through the seam in my shorts, I think that his brakes got caught on me. Well the race was a bit confusing for me because it was 45 minutes + 2 laps. Well I could see the time clicking down but I could not see the lap cards. The last lap I thought that there was another one to go and I was in good position but I did not sprint. Well it didn’t matter too much, the crit was a success, Ethan got 2nd and I stayed out of trouble and was ready to rock tomorrow.