Garrett Wonders Memorial Criterium

The race was made up of only around 15 riders and started off pretty quick with a breakaway attempt. After about a lap it was reeled in and two riders took of the front. I was able to bridge up to them. Our group of three worked well together gaining time over the main field. With about two laps to go the pace quickend and after that one rider was dropped, leaving just me and another rider up front with one lap to go. He pulled most of the last lap and finally just before the final turn I attacked and was able to cross the line in first place.

What a great race 18 women showed up all of Garrett's family was there it was just a great feeling today. Well the jr. boys did awesome!!!! Then Alan had a super sprint finish then I had to go race and try to follow in the footsteps. We start great a slow first lap one of the suma girls attacks we catch her I drift to the back of the pack and just chill out, and then I her the prime bell and of course i was like 25$ I am there, and on the last corner the suma girls looked right so I went left and was killin to the finish line got the prime and then i had a perty big gap on the feild so one of the girls was yellin at me to keep going and I was like crap i have my 25$ you can go I am tired. Then the rest of the race went out like it always do one of the suma girls gets away and the feild just sits there and sprints for 2nd place that i barely missed....ahh what a day

In this race I learned many things. One is that you should not warm up so long or you will be tired befor the race starts. I also learned that you cant start in a high gear. I work well with my teammate Alexi in a paseline even though he cut me off in the last turn to finish befor me. It was a great learning race all in all though.

2nd race of 3n24
Let's re-cap, last night Marysville, went down pretty hard. So at 10:30 we're at Walgreens picking up supplies, by 11 my sasquatch like back is being shaved to clean things up, my hip now has a lump the size of a softball.

Working registration things weren't going well, I hurt...alot, the dressing weren't holding up, so Julie introduced me to my new best friend Tagaderm, "Hey, I can move easier". With being so stiff and sore from last night I probably warmed up for nearly 2 hours.

I started near the back much to the chagrin of certain teammates and fans (i.e. Wendy). For those teammates riding in the field, I really was back there. About half way into the race after some other teammates had tried their luck Aaron floated back and found me. So I started to move up with my new shadow after about 2 laps I was sitting 15 back or so the pack hit a small lull on the second road, so I punched it and was gone.

A few laps later, guess who shows up, Andys and Brendan (I'm seeing a pattern here). A few more laps later 1 more managed to get free of the blockade setup between my teammates and BreakAway. We split a prime and worked fairly well together. We started playing cat and mouse though with 2 laps left. I knew the field was charging so I picked it up. I had to scrub a lot of speed for the 4th turn because of an errant wheel so I was out of contention for the sprint.

Thanks to all the teammates for the blocking, all the teammates marshalling the course, Todd for splits and bridge locations, and all the others for cheering.

We had a larger field this year, 18 women. With Summa again in attendance, with 3 members, I knew attacks would come. Dayton had 2, as did Bike Source; 3 SHCs, and the rest individuals.

Summa sent Tiffany off the front, and it was basically Dayton and me trying to catch. I could never give the pull we really needed, and it was finally Dayton who closed the gap. I knew Summa would quickly send someone, probably Jane. When it happened, we couldn't catch her. Summa did a good job of blocking, but there were a number of attacks around them to keep things interesting, try to shrink the field.

The last lap, I let myself slide to the back. I had watched how women were riding after the first turn, and I decided to try a surprise attack halfway down the straight on the far left. I succeeded in getting out front and hammered, but the call of "up" meant Summa was ready to respond. I hoped the whole field wasn't with them. I went through turn 3 the hardest I think we hit it that race. I had all bike lean, no body counter-steering, and though I hesitated in my pedal stroke, it wasn't long enough. I clipped the pavement pretty good, the bike did the classic hop, and I was headed towards the curb.

I knew not to try to stay on the road--not enough room, and hitting the curb with the wheel parallel to it would mean going down for sure. I also had enough time to think, "this is going to hurt" as I turned my wheel, against instinct, to force my bike to hit the curb like a RR crossing, at 90 degrees, to attempt to climb it. Success, without dumping the bike! I quickly change steering again to ride down the sidewalk, while I watched the women’s field pass me. I had to wait until almost the whole field was past to get back onto the road (I sure hope I didn't cut anyone off; I didn't hear any yells...). Turn 4, and the final sprint. I think I got back maybe one place. So much for my timing, and my bike handling skills in the corner. Oh, well. Despite some good, hard riding, not even a hint of my asthma.

Props to Brooke for winning a cash prime, then not getting popped a little later when an attack happened. Also, if you missed the juniors race at 8, you missed some great action by all our juniors brave enough to get out there. Daniel Knight and Ronnie Champlin, though juniors, raced in the Men's 3-4 field, where Daniel even won a prime. Nice job, all!

Last, thanks to all those folks who were chearing for me--too many to name, which is a great feeling. I think even some of the Westerville Bike Club folks who knew me were cheering. When I was hurting, that was great motivation.

- Not too much interesting to report about this race. Your basic crit, get up to the front and try to stay there. So I pretty much hovered in the top five or so. Unfortunately, I was pretty tired on the last lap so when the predictable attack came on the backstretch I didn't have much to respond with. So I sat in and pretty much stayed there for the sprint.

Good race and well organized by SH. Was in a break in the first half of the race, but didn't stick. Thanks to Todd for sitting on the front. The standard Cat 3 trio of Brandon, Andis, Matson, and change made there move, so Pete from Breakaway and I sat on the front as much as possible and tried to reel in any fliers. Was pretty uneventful until the finish, and I didn't really have the legs for a strong sprint. Possibly due to the battle wounds from Marysville. Just put some Advanced Healing pads on, sweet.

Thanks to the folks for rocking the race, and to all the Savages.

I like this race and, of course, being in memory of Garrett makes it the most special race on the calendar for me. I got in an early break but it didn't last more than a couple of laps. Then Jim rocketed off the front to initiate the break that lasted. The pace remained fast the whole race, but no one was strong enough to sustain a counter attack, which made my job a lot easier. Wish I had some punch at the end of the race to take a top ten, but I was on empty by the time the last lap rolled around.

Clipped a pedal in the third turn early in the race but kept from crashing. I had to ease up though and a farily large gap opened up between myself and the the main field. I worked to bridge up but couldn't. I was able to catch three other riders who had gotten dropped and used them to rest a few seconds before making a second attempt at briding up to the main field. After pulling about half of a lap we had almost closed the gap but not quite. The other riders didnt pull through right away and when they did our pace slowed too much and the gap widened again. I made several more efforts at the front to bridge up but without that much help from the other riders could never close things up enough. Eventually we finished in a 5 man chase group.

This race was extremely tough as there were several splits in the field and I was left alone for much of the race to try and catch the leaders. From the start I was off the back, but I moved up several places on the first and second laps. I was able to move up to about 8th place and I was unable to catch the group ahead of me. I knew if I could catch them, and sit in the draft, my race would have been much easier. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and I had to ride solo for the entire race. Riding solo at 20mph took its toll during the final laps as I was trying to catch the group, I was simply unable to bridge the gap.
I was made more aware of several areas that I need to improve. First, I did not clip in soon enough at the start. Second, I slowed down for the corners, therefore I had to work even harder to catch riders during the short straightaways.
With all that said, this race was not a complete dissapointment. I still had fun, after all it isn’t every day that they close the roads and I get to push myself as hard as I can without having to worry about auto traffic. I also had the immense satisfaction of passing riders on the second or third lap, after starting the race off the back. It was an excellent race. I have no complaints.

Had no top end for this race. Still had jet lag from my trip France and slept on the floor at the airport. My last ride was Alpe d'Huez last Sunday.

Well last night took its toll, hung on until 8 laps to go, got dropped, and two laps later got pulled.

Sun was shining,the pavement was dry and there were lots of bike racers. Good job team, on set up, running and racing this event. I got shots of lots of you out there racing.