Athens Twilight Criterium

Hey all,

Our team just had their first race together complete as a team! We did the first race of the USA Crit series. The course was about 1 km long, traditional four corner criterium with one slight rise on the course. The race was 40 laps long (25 miles), and it was hard! It was probably the hardest race of the series.
My plan was to survive the first half of the race because it would probably be the hardest part. The big teams would most likely string out the peleton to get rid of the stragglers and reduce the field size as much as possible. There were moments of extreme pain and suffering, but I hung on and got into a groove. Also, I was just trying to get my legs going for the rest of Speed Week. The last two laps were the hardest I have ever raced. It was completely single file. I was able to manage a top 20 spot. I am happy with this because this my first hard race of the season! All in all our team had a good learning experience, and hope to keep improving throughout the week.
Next race is Tuesday in Beaufort, SC. and from there it is full on racing until next Sunday!! Wish us luck!

Holli

Tyson's Corner Curcuit Race

Hello,

Damp and cold was the name of the game for Suday's Curcuit Race. The course was 1.2 miles and featured a long up hill drag (about 500+ meters), and a long drag down. The race was 60 minutes long. The race started off pretty fast, but not a blistering pace. After about 20 minutes of racing, I cover a fast acceleration up the long hill, and I work with the rider who accelerated, but she dropped off the next time up the hill. I proceeded to do 2 laps or so by myself. Then a counter group of 4 came up to me, and we worked together for the next 10+ minutes, but we were having a hard time keeping our paceline smooth so we were caught. I tried one more little acceleration, but the peleton was having non of that. We finished up a few more laps and then on the bell lap the swarming started to happen a bit. I had to move up the outside with very little draft and then I started my sprint without any lead out, but managed 4th in the women 1/2 category. It was a good day out, and my legs were strong.

Thanks for reading,
Rachel