Grant Park Crit

This past Sunday I raced the Grant Park Crit on a 0.8 mile rolling course through Grant Park in Atlanta. The course featured a hill of about 20 seconds, but the hill kept dragging on with a false flat to the finish line. That false flat was a real kick in the pants where all the fireworks happened throughout the race. A thunderstorm rolled through at the end of the cat 3 race, so our start was delayed and the race was shortened from 60 minutes to 45 minutes. The field was the same stacked field that raced on Saturday, so once again I decided to key off the other pros to make my own decisions. The race started off aggressively with attacks from the gun. Holowesko-Citadel rode very smart putting riders in all of the moves. That aggressive riding put Ian Garrison off the front alone about 20 minutes into the race with the other Holowesko- Citadel riders marking all other attempts and disrupting the chase. This caused Garrison's gap to grow to around 20 seconds. Oscar Clark put in a big dig on the false flat with Phil O'Donnell of Axeon countering that move. I decided to counter that one and made a selection of 7 riders happen in pursuit of Garrison. The group included Phil O'Donnell, Charlie Hough and Miguel Bryon of Holowesko- Citadel, Emile Abraham and Willem Kaiser of 706, Brock Mason of Prima Tappa, and myself. Emile, Charlie, and Miguel were sitting on, so only 4 riders in the group were setting pace. I liked my chances more in this split than back in the field, so I decided I would work. Throughout the final 10 laps I put in a few digs frying my legs for the sprint, and Willem was driving the pace for Emile. I was never successful in getting away from my group and crossed the line in 7th place. I wish I could have achieved a higher result, but I left everything I had out on the road. Congratulations to Ian for staying off the front to take the win. Miguel Bryon and Phil O'Donnell rounded out the podium for second and third respectively. I really enjoyed these two races, and I look forward to the River Gorge Omnium next weekend in Chattanooga.