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August 15, 2005
Two weekends ago, the team raced the Bank of America crit in Charlotte, NC. The teams are limited to just 6 riders for this race, so they gave all the roster spots to our crit/sprint specialists. This crit is not like normal NRC crits, the reason is, is that they had $125,000 in prize money for one crit. That makes the race really fast with people taking lots of risks to try to move up and get their piece of the pie. So the reports that I got about the race were mostly about all the crashing that went on during the race. Taking risks in crits just is not my game, so I wasn’t too disappointed about not getting chosen for the race.
So while the rest of the team was in NC, I raced the Tour de Christiana and I really struggled. I always look forward to this race, I won the omnium the last two seasons, so it is a good race for me. Unfortunately, I did not perform well at all. After dropping out of the RR on Saturday, I knew that my legs were not there and I just tried to survive the TT/crit double day on Sunday. I got to have my TT bike at home for this race so I really gave it my all in for the TT. I struggled to a third place finish on the Intercourse course, which was my highest place on the weekend. The crit actually came down to a field sprint, which was won by Nothstien. Of the times that I have raced this race, I don’t think that it has ever come down to bunch kick for the win, so that was unusual to me. With a few corners to go in the crit I was in top 10 and my wheel slid in a corner a bit and I totally lost my confidence and pretty much sat up, gapping a bunch of guys off of the sprint. They were all yelling and screaming about it. I felt bad about it for about a half a second.
This past weekend was two criteriums, each of which was raced in an oven. And the oven was hot! Saturday was my 1st time racing the Grandview Heights crit in Lancaster. It was a cool course through a nice neighborhood, with lots of residents having picnics and cheering on the race. Halfway through the crit, I mad a note to myself that my head felt like it was melting underneath my helmet, it was brutal. I heard that Dave Black was basically passed out laying in the street between parked cars after completing both the 40+ race and the pro1-2-3 race back to back. What a stud, but you would think that he would be experienced enough to get his electrolytes. Just kidding Dave. I ended up third on the day but more importantly I lost about 10 lbs. Too bad it was all water weight.
Sunday felt like a nice autumn day compared to the heat on Saturday, or else I was just adapting to the heat. Sunday I raced the Tour de Medford and my legs felt great. I was able to get away solo and win from about 15 laps out. So this is a good sign that my legs will be feeling good for the races in Downers Grove, IL this weekend. We have a crit Saturday night and the USPRO Crit Championships on Sunday afternoon. I will let you know how things go.
One last thing, I am sure that most of you have heard, but just incase you have not; a local racer was seriously injured in a crash in the Tour de Toona. Her name is Sarah Scott, and a website has been set up with details and information on how you can support Sarah. I know personally how much words of encouragement can help when recovering from a crash, so I encourage you all to take a minute and check it out.
www.sarah-scott.com.
Talk to you later,
Scott (E-mail Scott at zwiza@yahoo.com)
www.kgsncycling.com
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