Georgia Games Criterium Report

I went up to Marietta for the Georgia Games Criterium. Will was racing the Cat 4 race & I was racing in the Cat 5 race. The entire trip up there was in the rain, it never really stopped at all. We arrived there, the bikes were soaked, but we got our numbers and proceeded to get ready. I pinned my number on my jersey and then set my bike on the trainer to warm up. I was able to warm up for about 20 minutes on the trainer in a dry area, then went out on the course for a couple of warm up laps. It was still raining and by the end of the first warm up lap, I was already soaked. The course was in an industrial park. It was 1.2 miles in length and had some rolling hills. The uphill parts were on the front part of the course and the back part of the course was pretty much downhill. The race was 30 minutes plus 2 laps. The gun went off & we started up the first hill, the pace wasn't that bad, probably due to the wet roads, but I was able to keep my place in the pack. We did the first lap in about 3 minutes. Everyone was very courteous towards everyone else, there was plenty of space to race on as we had the roads pretty much to ourselves. About lap 2 a rider from Reality Bikes took a flyer and gained about 10 seconds on the pack. We let him stay out there for about 2 laps then he was reeled back in. The Land Rover & Reality Bikes teams had the numbers in the pack. I was still in the pack, watching how things were going. My bike computer quit working after the second lap, so I had no idea how fast we were going or what our lap times were. They gave us a count with 3 laps to go & I started trying to move up towards the front. We got the bell for the final lap & coming out of the final turn I was about 4th from the front. I thought I had a good position. The pace was picking up as we got closer towards the finish line, I was holding my own, only dropping back about 2-3 positions. Then suddenly another rider shoved me from my right side. I had to slow down to stay upright and that gave the rest of the field a gap. I tried my best to close it, but I couldn't. I ended up 11th out of 19 riders. The winner was from the Aaron's team. All in all I had a great time, did the best I've done in a crit for a long time. I was able to stay with the pack the entire race. By the time the Cat 4's started, the rain had stopped. They took off & Will was in the group most of the race. All of a sudden, he slowed down & said he had a flat front tire. I ran to my bike & gave him the front wheel from my bike. He used his free lap and rejoined the pack. He said the pace was brutal, they were going uphill @ 27 mph he said. He said he was in a good position coming out of the last turn on the bell lap, but just flat ran out of gas. He ended up finishing 17th, only .4 seconds back from the winner. He said he had a great time & looks forward to the next race just as I do.