Uptown Minneapolis Crit

Last night we raced the Uptown Minneapolis Crit of the North Star Grand Prix. The Crit was 35 laps long on a 0.8 mile course with 6 turns. The plan for the day was to save energy and maybe go on the attack if a good opportunity presented itself. The roads were a lot smoother than the crit we did a couple nights before, so that was a nice thing. There was no forecast of rain, but there was some drizzle at the start. Since it appeared it may rain I ran some very low pressure in my tires. I started out near the front and wanted to just stay safe for the first few laps and get a feel for the course. I felt comfortable, and guys were attacking off the front. It appeared to be very difficult off the front as the field seemed motivated. Nothing ever really got a significant gap and the rain stopped. In my mind at this point I thought it was best to save energy. Evan, Nolan, Nic, and I were usually pretty close to each other throughout the race, and Evan got in a move for a couple laps around 20 laps to go. Other than that we were staying toward the front of the field and saving energy. With around 10 laps to go hard drizzle began that made the course wet. This changed my game plan to survive and stay near the front. With 7 laps to go there was a big crash that I was caught up in. I took a free lap and re-joined near Nic and Evan. While I was in the pit Carp told me to stay in front of any splits and not lose time. With about 4 laps to go I came around Nic, eased a little, and signaled for him to follow me. For the next four laps I went slow enough through the turns to keep it upright but was railing the straights full throttle. I never looked back, but Nic was on my wheel the whole time and finished right behind me. Both of us were able to stay in front of the splits and not lose time. This was a success because Nic moved up to 9th place in the GC heading into the hilly 97 mile North Mankato Road Race today.