RUTGERS!!!!

There is not enough space in this post to describe the emotions pumping through my system Saturday morning as I eagerly awaited my first road race of the season. All of these emotions seemed to be multiplied by 10 after Paul (brother in-law to Dr. Goates and best host ever!) assured me that the kid walking around in a Garmin- Chipotle kit was indeed an authentic pro, and that he would be joining our field. I managed to get everything together and find my way down to the starting line. The race started out fast of course. The first and biggest climb on the course came at about the 1 mile mark. By the top of the field the field was split in two groups. Next 6 miles was fast and furious as the trailing group laid the hammer down in order to catch the leaders. After the regroup, the next two laps were routine with a few minor attacks but mostly steady pedaling. In those two laps I identified the pro in the field and "latched" my front wheel to his. About half way through the third lap he attacked and I was right there to go with him. Another guy also went with us. We realized that we had a gap so we perused to maintain it. The 3 of us held off the rest of the field for another half a lap before being caught by a group of 7. The group of 10 was once again quickly separated to 3 and 7 on the climb. I was in the group of 7. I stayed with the group of 7 for the remainder of the race and finished the race with a very poor, but improving, sprint for 8th place.

The "crit" was not really a crit in my books. The course was a longer loop that was either uphill or down the entire time. I sat in for most of the race but when they rang the bell for the fifth prime of the day I decided I had the legs and good position to go for it. So, on the hill I put in a worthy attack and rode to a prime lap victory. Sadly nobody else went with me on the attack. If they would have I might have tried harder to stay away from the pack, but considering I had no help I just slowly drifted back into the wind blocking field. On the last lap the field split while I was in bad position. I ended up finishing in 24th place.

Overall the weekend was great! Lots of great racing, lots of fun, and lots of Pain!! -Alan