Post date: Apr 16, 2011 3:12:38 PM
Saturday morning’s crit was a pretty challenging 2 mile loop around the Major Taylor Velodrome and included a decent climb and a chicane (what’s that?). As always, the registration table was a mess in the morning and we did not have enough time for a proper warm up. I also had a pretty horrible starting position and was almost forced off the road a few times in the first lap. With all the chaos and turmoil, I could not make my way up to the lead pack and ended up riding in with Brian with 24th and 25th place. Louis and Ian took up the slack in this race with Louis winning the race!!
Sunday morning was rough after staying up late the night before fueling up on TacoBell. We arrived with about 10 minutes before the TTT was supposed to go off. With only 3 teams racing the Men’s D race, IIT secured a first place finish with no warmup and a pretty brutal crosswind.
The wind continued to pick up leading up to the road race and was probably near 20mph by the time we started. Ian, Louis and myself were at the rear of the pack when the race began but we slowly crept our way up and were at the front of the pack once the first lap was finished. The 4 mile long course had a pretty hellish 9% climb to the finish line and every lap around I felt like I had to use a lower gear. With one lap to go, the lead group formed a gap following the climb and I tried my hardest to bridge it with Ian and Louis on the backside of the course. They caught up with the group and took off and I was stuck by myself holding my bike sideways in the strong crosswind. A MSU rider came by and we tried to track down the lead, but by the time the climb came around it was too late. The 3 of us still all finished in the top 15 which made the trip to Fair Oaks Dairy Farm that much more enjoyable (and tiring).