Silver Medal

Pics coming soon. . . Today was the criterium. This is the one race I really thought I had Gold. But when I got there I saw that I was going to have some real competition this race in the form of Michelle KIng with Paul Tracy cycling out of Las Vegas. I have raced against Michelle before and she kicks butt. She said her team decided to stop and do the crit on their way to the High Uintahs Classic. I'm glad they did, it made for some great racing.

We had 12 women at the start line. Alisha Welch jumped out right from the start and I followed. Michelle was right behind me. Immediately we lost the rest of the field. Alisha is super strong and Michelle and I were happy to let her pull us around for a lot of the race. We each tried a couple of attacks but all were immediately shut down. The final two laps were at a good pace. As we rounded the final corner I was still sitting third wheel. I jumped out of the saddle but it was too late. Michelle attempted to come around Alisha but the straight was too short. I should have moved up before the turn because by the time I finished cornering they were already sprinting. I got third in the race but because Alisha is not in my age group I got Silver behind Michelle. It was so much fun! We lapped everyone else in the field except for one.

We stuck around and watched the rest of the crits. In the Master's men 35+ a guy from Paul Tracy got in a solo break. The field was so disorganized that his lead kept getting longer despite me yelling the time gap to them. He eventually lapped the field and set his teammate up to sprint for Silver. It was impressive racing. Unfortunately, there was a crash in that race and the next one as racers came around the final turn at full speed trying to set up for the sprint.

Now were back at camp and we have new campers next to us. Two sisters (siblings not nuns) traveling from San Francisco to Virginia on their bikes. Today they rode from Milford. Each girl has about 40 lbs of gear packed in panniers on a steel road frame. Tomorrow they tackle Cedar Breaks- OUCH!