Statesville Crit

Last night I raced a one hour crit in downtown Statesville, NC on a fun L-shaped course. Attacks started flying from the gun with Charlie Hough of Hincapie launching immediately. The fast speed kept up, and I kept myself in the top 10-15 riders in order to keep momentum and save energy. After about 15 minutes of racing Ben Renkema, Matt Moosa (both Finish Strong), Charlie Hough, and another rider got a big gap. I sat around for a few laps as they dangled and let a couple guys bring it back. However, when it was apparent they would be unable to close the gap I went to the front of the peloton and dragged it back. Then I attacked once we got there. There were more ebs and flows within the peloton, and Moosa got away with Fabio Calabria of Novo Nordisk. The bell rang for a points prime while I was in terrible position. A crash occurred the previous lap, and riders were coming out of the pit. The peloton sat up heading into the line, so I took advantage of the chaos to take third place points. I eventually ended up bridging to Moosa and Calabria. When I got there they wouldn't drive the pace like I could on my own, so I just kept pulling lap after lap. Alder Martz of Attaque Team Gusto began to come across. When he got close I accelerated because if I was dragging two guys I'd take the omnium lead potentially and at minimum claim third place on the day. However, my efforts were futile, and Alder made it to our group. The other guys started working when he got there, but Alder's presence spelled the end of our break as Finish Strong did not like Alder up the road. As soon as we were caught there was a final points prime, so I sat on the front driving the pace and claimed first. Then there was a cash prime the next lap for 50 bucks that Alder pipped me for. With about 9 laps to go Ben Renkema got the fastest bike change ever (because free laps expired at 10 to go), and the field sat up while one rider got cash (in the form of some primes) and the glory of riding solo off the front of the peloton. When Ben returned Finish Strong started doing a leadout, but it was a little dangerous because it wasn't quite fast enough, and we were bunching up behind them. There was a gambler's prime with one lat to go, so I hijacked the Finish Strong train and launched a big attack to claim the prime and tried to keep it up to the line for the win with my legs searing with pain. A few guys passed me in the final turn. Then guys kept passing me because for some reason it isn't possible to sprint for a minute and a half, so I came across the line in 13th place. I am happy I took that gambler prime, and tried to go for the win the way I did. It is good to shoot for the stars even if you don't quite make it sometimes. It was a really fun race, and I look forward to the crit this afternoon in Asheboro, NC.