USCF Elite Crit Natz

50 mile crits should be illegal. I don't know what happened to me, but I decided to get in a break-away early in the race. I don't know how these things happen but they do. Anyway, I managed to get 50 bucks in a prime and a bunch of pictures on cyclingnews...ryan you picked the worst one to post...thanks.
The race itself was typical...sketchy. Luckily I have done it before so I knew what to expect. Just sit in and wait until the very last lap and then move to the very front on the last lap. If you move up with two to go you will get swarmed and have to do it all again a lap later. So with one to go I moved to the front and did my best. I was AWESOME racing with the savage hill boys, we definately are the coolest team out there.

172 Cat 1’s + 1 Elite National Championship + a non-selective course = SKETCHY.

It was great to have the whole crew together, Mark was the same man-animal as always. Jeremy was riding strong and got a great result the night before, Swain did 3 races within 24 hrs and got his long over due Cat 1 upgrade, and Rish hadn’t even started riding his CX bike. We all missed Nato.

With 15 laps to go I started thinking someone planted landmines on the course. You would hear a noise, some people would go flying in the air then 30 guys would plow into the back of them.

29th in Cat 2, it was scary, I've never braked so much into the corners, it was the same course as the pro am, but the race was completely different.

I went for one prime, 50 dollars, didn't get it, got beat by half a wheel.



After the race, decided to do the Elite race and upgrade to a cat 1.

Field in Cat 1, elite field, it was fast not too fast, mark, grimm, rish, gamm all raced awesome....I really enjoyed the weekend, it was fun to finally race with these guys...but I want to have the ability to compete in these races..so I have some work to do this winter.

Slept a little better, Caylin was too tired to take up the king size bed as she did the night before. Family left that morning after they helped watch Caylin while my wife and I prepared to load the car. Ate a big breakfast 2 hrs before the race and it was a good thing the race was slow.

Yep the race was so slow I thought I was at Westlake, Ohio doing training races. I knew that the miles of the race would hurt me in the long run. I have only been healthy for 5 weeks and I knew I may have trouble no matter what pace we had all race long. I moved up later to where I felt comfortable in the top 40, and stayed there till the end. I had one chance to move up with one lap to go. As it bunched up I could have gone around everyone but I knew I wouldn't last the rest of the lap in the top 20. So I tried to sit back and watch the rest of the race. Pushing as hard as I could to hang on cramping up the little hill on the last 10 yards of the hill. The last 5 laps were hard but I knew my legs couldn't hang on to the front anyway.

After the race Paul made me feel good by telling me he was glad I didn't make that same move I did in the 30+ race that he heard about. I told Paul if I had the legs I would have. Great race Paul he did everything to perfection and his team got 3rd.

It was a very great day for Savage Hill, our team is definitely the Team for 2006 if we remain Healthy. Health is the key to success and we had our share of being sick and having broken bones this year. Gamm, Swain, Rish and Hekman, it was great to race with you in this race I hope to work with you in the future and help you all out in any way I can. We need to ride / race together more often next year I think it will help us out in the long run. Sorry I went home early hope you all understood why I had too. Caylin was great the whole way home and we were even stopped in traffic for 2 hrs. So I guess we should have stayed anyway. Home at 12:30 am and Caylin was a perfect little Angel the whole way home.

Great Job Guys! 2006 In The Mix!

Thank you Jesus for a great weekend and keeping us safe. I pray that you will help all the families involved in the car accident coming home. Thank you Jesus. Amen.