NVGP Stage 2: Downtown St. Paul Criterium

In a word: Lame. When I went to sign in my name was highlighted so I asked an official what that was all about and they said I'd be getting a call up. Awesome. The team director assured me that was the case as well. So I hung out at the back of the field as everyone lined up as they had made a path through the middle for callups. They do they call ups, and I never get called. So I'm in a bad state of mind and stuck behind 144 guys on a crit course where its notoriously hard to move up.

I go ape shit from the gun and try to get as many spots as I can as soon as I can, but I guess other people had the same idea and were a bit too aggressive about it. They stack it hard in the third corner of the first f-ing lap and I go down. Not hard, but hard enough and I snap my bars and bounce on the ground a little bit. Let us simply say I was in poor sorts as I headed for the pit. SHimano put me on a neutral bike, but for some reason they put me on a 57. I will reuse this phrase and tell you that it was like riding a squirrell on meth. I had to ride with my elbows out so I could get my knees through the pedal stroke.

They pushed me back in at the end of the field, and thats mostly where I stayed. The course finishes on a downhill, theres another shallower downhill section, then a long drag uphill and a flat top section. I was sprinting up the hill every time. All out. I got nowhere. I knew gaps were going to open up at the end of the race, cause it was completely strung out. Guys were already well around the next corner by the time I would get through. I do not thing that I ever even saw the front of the race. Literally.

I kept sprinting around people who were coming off in the last few laps, calves cramping and ready to hurl, but I kept contact with the field. Then sure enough two guys stack it in the downhill corner with like 3 to go and a gap formed 15 wheels in front of me. I worked my ass off and we tried as a group to close it, and when that clearly wasn't working I took off, but I just couldn't get across.

I ended up losing over half a minute and I slid down to like 50th in GC and 14th in the amateur jersey. I didn't lose much skin, but I banged my hip pretty badly. If only I could have found one more second on that TT course I'd have been i nthe jersey and gotten that callup for sure. Oh well.

THere's a lot of racing yet to do and everyone says the GC is made in the road races and at Stillwater. So I'm trying to keep my head up and figure out how I'm going to lay it down over these next few days.

Down, but not out.