I raced my bike again!

Sunday I did the Bannock Street Criterium in Denver. The course was pretty cool, wide open and fast with 8 corners and one small rise. I felt like I rode pretty well almost the entire race and only found myself too far back twice and had to waste a ton of energy to get back up to where I wanted/needed to be. I put in one small half lap effort to try and get across to a decent sized break, but somehow I couldn't shake Greg Henderson (Health Net/Maxxis) from my wheel, and the rest of the peloton decided to come with. With 2 to go, I was moving up really well, and just about where I wanted to be coming into the sprint for 5th, since Hendy and a few others had gotten a move to stick and were at least 45 seconds if not more up the road. Then coming into a left hand turn, the group moved left, pushed the guy next to me into the curb, he came back and touched me, apparently freaked out, and laid down on top of me. I tumbled a little, and luckily no one else went down, but by the time I was up and riding, I just coasted in for last place.

I'm very happy with how I felt during the race, and that gives me a load of confidence for the next time I pin on a number, but it's always disappointing to suffer for 70 minutes only to get last place. Oh well, there is always another race. I'm not sure what I'll do next, but hopefully I can find a few more crits to start the buildup for cross.

I saw a horrible car accident happen directly beside me on my way home from the race and I got pretty shook up so I drove back roads the rest of the way home. I hope you all take care, drive carefully, and be safe. Thanks for checking in, sorry once again for the rather dull update.