Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race

I posted this picture on my Facebook account, but realized many of you are not on Facebook. So, here is the recap of our races in Enumclaw on Saturday.

We had a time trial in the morning. They sent us off one at a time at 30 second intervals. It was really cool to just be me and the bike trying to go as fast as possible. The only real reference point to how fast you are going compared to the other racers is the one racer you can see ahead of you. My goal was to be the one doing the passing--I wanted to pass two riders and not get passed. I passed the gal just in front of me, and didn't see the next gal until just before the finish. I did gain some time on her, but I couldn't catch her. I also didn't get caught, which felt good. I ended up 5th out of 32 riders, just 16 seconds off the leader.

The criterium was in the afternoon. My only goal for this race was not to crash. There is a lot of cornering in crits, and I am not a fan of cornering...at least not when you are going fast with a lot of other riders around you. I was able to stay in the pack without a whole lot of effort. I think all my training has paid off. I took off the front of the pack towards the end of the race, just to see if I could do it. There was a good section with a left turn and another quick right...I was able to take the left turn wide, sprint hard to get ahead of the group, and take the right turn tight. I figured I would do the same thing during the last lap. It was risky, but would really pay off if it worked. I pounded hard, but one gal caught my wheel. That was okay with me...she coached me through the rest of turns so we could stay ahead. On the last right hand turn before the finish, I was ahead. Adam said that everyone was surprised to see me out front because I had been towards the back on the previous lap. But there I was, out front with less than 100 meters to go. The gal on my wheel took off (with fresh legs thanks to me:)) and I couldn't catch her. I didn't really care...it felt awesome hearing my teammates cheer me on and crossing the finish line in second place. Yahoo! The picture above is of me on the podium with the 1st and 3rd place winners...my first podium finish! I even won $40...sweet!

Adam raced, too. He was frustrated with his results, but you can't do much about someone else crashing. A rider went down in front of Adam on the crit and his bike flew out right in front of Adam's bike. He went down, but didn't get too hurt... just a few scrapes and bruises. I know he'll be the one with the podium finish next time.