The Saturday cat 3 crit in downtown was called off due to horrible weather, it was raining with a lot of lightening. The fields had been very small all day and with the cat 3, women’s 1-3, and pro 1-2 to go they decided to end the day early. It is a shame that the weather was so bad as this was a nice 4 corner course with a significant hill each lap to the finish line.

For Sunday the weather was much better, overcast with no rain. The course was a 21 mile loop with us doing 3 laps for a total of 63 miles. The course started in downtown Quincy, headed north and turned into the same course as the state road race 2 years ago with lots of hills. On the way back in to town there was a long hill about 1 mile from town. At the top of this hill we went about 2 blocks, a left turn and 2 blocks, then a right turn with 2 blocks to the finish.

Our race stayed together the entire race with one team doing some repeated attacks on the last lap but they were chased down each time. As we hit the final climb I was near the back and knew that I needed to be near the front for the final 2 turns if I was to have a chance at a good finish. An ASV rider went up the right side in the bike lane early on the climb. I watched this move but he didn’t last long. Then I decided it was my time to attack so I went as hard as I could up the right side and got a good gap on the field. I probably had a 75-100 meter gap by the top of the climb and was starting to blow, but I kept thinking it was only another ½ mile or so and I might be able to hang on and win. I looked back and saw a single rider coming after me and started to worry as the whole field began to pick up the pace. As I got close to the turns I saw it was my teammate Sean so I was not as worried.  Sean went by me as we entered the turns. As we hit the final stretch I looked back, we had a 50 meter lead with 150 meters to go and knew that the field would not catch us so I did not sprint but just rolled across taking second.

This was my best cat 3 finish to date and best payout.

Until next time,

Craig