Time Trial:
Went well. I did the 5.5 mile (or so) course in 13:42. Good enough for 3rd place behind Kirsten Sass and Rebecca Larson (the Aaron’s pro that’s been tearing up the local racing scene lately). My time trialing has definitely improved.

Criterium:
My plan was to counter attack and try to get off the front whenever the field went after a prime. I did. It worked. Only one rider was able to come with me (Jamie, a MTBer from Vantaggio). But…
I got dropped from the break when we were about 10 sec. off the front and ended up in 9th place.

FAIL!!!!

Road Race:
Between the KOM climb on all 3 laps and some very well-organized riding on our (the leaders) part, the lead group was whittled away to 5 of us. I was sorely tempted to attack in a couple of places and try to get out of the group, but I was reasonably sure that the 4 of them were strong enough and working well enough together that they’d be able to pull me in pretty quickly. SO, I decided against it.
My sprint hasn’t been stellar lately, so I talked to Kirsten Sass early in the last lap and told her I’d give her a leadout from ~500m to the finish line. I figured if someone could take Rebecca in the sprint, it would be her. She was on my wheel when I made the jump to the left side of the road, but somehow Rebecca the random German woman who was in attendance got on my wheel as well. Needless to say, when I pulled off, I was pretty disappointed to see the two extras in tow with Kirsten. Rebecca got the win, and Kirsten was 2nd. I was 4th behind my unintentional leadout group.

My results were good enough for 4th in the GC. Oh yeah, and the Georgia Cup payouts for women are a slap in the face. I went to support my team, the SEW series, and for the experience of racing a tough race. Otherwise, I would have boycotted such an obvious disparity in mens and womens pro 1/2 payouts.

Photos from the women’s 1/2/3 crit and men’s 3 crit can be found on Ryan’s blog. If you see one you like, email or comment and I’ll send you a high quality version of it.