Kenosha Training Crit #2

Category 4/5
45 minutes
Overall finish ??

Back in the Kenosha Industrial Park for round 2 of the Training Crit series. I was feeling good and excited on the drive there, having raced on the course the previous weekend I felt like I had a slight advantage. Also many fellow Pegasi were coming out to race as well, it is always really motivating to have people cheering for you and to see fellow pink/blacks in the pack with you.

The weather was down right balmy compared to the previous weekend, it was fairly sunny with a mild wind, temperatures around 35F.

The overall turn-out was pretty large, maybe 50 people. The race started off and everyone was off fairly quickly. No time for mistakes this week. I got clipped in and sprinted around the side of the pack to jump upfront. My strategy today was to make sure I didn't miss out on anything that jumped off the front. I wanted to sit top 10 the entire race. The entire race was fairly quick through-out. There was a crash early on, luckily it was a bike length behind me. The entire pack was really aware and awake for the whole race. Every time someone would try something, there was always someone calling out what was going on. Much different than the previous week. Jason was also feeling rather squirrely and a few times we tried to lead a break-off with a few guys, but the pack was always right there to pull us back in.

No one was escaping today. What was also impressive was that there were not any fall behind packs. Almost everyone stayed in the main pack or dropped out. I stayed overly aggressive and jumped on anything that moved off the front. I knew I was tiring myself out doing this, but I didn't want to miss anything. This was the perfect race to practice various tactics, no WCA points were being awarded so there wasn't anything at stake. The entire race was up to whoever was the best sprinter in the pack ( I knew this wasn't me). I am not sure where I finished overall, but I was really happy with how the rest of the race played out.

I stayed really aggressive and put myself in a good position to win. While I was overly aggressive and chased the slightest thing that moved hence unecessarily wasting energy, I felt really good about it. While I wasn't able to work with many of the Pegasi I was able to work with Jason, I stayed aware of where he was and what he was doing the entire race. Overall it made me feel really good about the season to come, personally I am feeling really strong as a rider and feel really good about my fellow teammates.