Hopefully, first of many :)

The Sunny King crit on Saturday didn’t go so well. After a rushed warmup…

I lined up with the likes of Tina Pic and Laura Van Gilder (as well as a host of other very talented, very experienced teams).

The start was hectic. I was in the middle of the pack, and the girl in the front/right of me couldn’t get clipped in, and I ended up shoving her out of the way with my elbow. This got me stuck on the back of the pack from the beginning.

From there, it didn’t get much better. In the back, I kept getting behind women that were falling off and letting gaps form. To make matters worse, there were big primes given out on the first few laps, so the field would surge up the slight hill to the finish line on every lap. After about 20 minutes, I ended up not being able to move up further into the pack and, by that time, was not able to cover the next gap that opened up in front of me.

SO, I got pulled. Probably not the first time that someone’s been pulled in their first NRC crit, but very disappointing, nonetheless. I felt like I’d let my team and team manager down.

For more photos of the women’s pro 1/2 race and the men’s 2/3 race, check out Ryan’s Blog

Thankfully, Sunday was better. The Roswell course was a bit more technical. I got a much better start, and I was actually able to move up in the field and hold better position for a about half the race. After the slower riders were pulled, I actually dropped to the back and stayed there for the remainder of the race , ending up 41st place. Sorry, no photos of Roswell yet, but hopefully I can post some of the ones that the team manager took.

I need a lot more practice, and I need to just be more fit in general so that moving up isn’t quite as physically taxing, and I’m able to hold my position more aggressively once I’m up. I plan to ride in a few local men’s cat 3 races to try and be more accustomed to the length/intensity of the NRC races.