Me leading a group of about 7 riders around the course on Sunday. Lot of fun!!!

I am pretty happy with what the weekend brought for racing. Missed the road race on Saturday due to not being able to get a ride to the race, but I think it turned out for the best. I was able to spend some time with the family and spend some of my graduation money on cycling stuff. I picked up some new gloves, a 3 in-one spoke wrench, a new floor pump with a gauge that works and some Endurox. I was kind of leary of the Endurox, but after using it following some serious efforts it really works.

I was really nervous for the Sunday Wheels on Willy crit. I was doing the Cat 4/5 race, but have not been up against 4's yet. Another reason to get really nervous was that I knew most of the 4's riders, and they are fast compared to me. So I pulled up my boot straps and showed up to hang. I was really relieved to see Charlie and Alex show up to race as well. Then I saw Todd and most of the B racers from the UW Team and thought what the hell, lets give it a ride.

I lined up in the 3rd row giving way to those who could jump right out and get up front. I did not want to make anyone mad for getting in the way right away when I was not a top rider. It did not pay off, the two guys in front of me missed their clips and I was now at the back of the pack. So I busted my ass to move up towards the middle to try and keep up with everyone. I lasted in the main pack until a crash happened just in front of me, resulting in a major slow down that I could not recover from. I was already on the edge, just keeping up with the pack accelerations and stuff, but the slow down killed me. So off the back I was again. I ended up being on my own for about 2 laps before I caught a group of two riders, and we worked together to help out. The whole time I thought I was in last place, but it turned out there was a pack of 5's behind me. The other two riders kind of blew up and the 5's caught us, making a nice strong group to ride with. Only 3 of use were taking pulls up front though, resulting in some words being yelled. Just was we were caught by the 4's, CRASH on corner 1 right in front of me. I came to a compete stop to miss it. In retrospect I should have gone down to get my free laps and got put back in where I went down, but human nature prevailed to keep me safe, but it cost me dearly. I ended up being way at the back now and pulling some guy behind me for about 3 laps. After yelling at him to work and sitting up he moved around me, completely winded. It was then I realized it was a 13 -14 year old kids...Man I felt bad because he was DEAD. I drafted for about a lap before he burned up and caught a group of 5 riders. In the end I came around corner 4 towards the back of 7 people and ended up sprinting for 3rd in the group.

Overall it was a good race for me. It showed I am a little stronger than I thought, but not that strong. It also let me see that there are plenty of 5's in the race that I can hang with. It really helped my confidence a lot.

Tonight is the practice crit, so we will see how it turns out. I am more excited about having a bunch of the UW guys come over after the crit for some grillin' and games.