#142: Soto - Saturday / downtown
The Saturday evening crit used the same downtown Nashville course as stage 3 of the 2007 Soto stage race. Last year I was in a bad training place (only a few weeks back from 2 weeks off the bike in early May). I didn’t make the cut… My fitness is a lot better this year…
I lined up 2nd row, but I flubbed the start… that meant fighting for position from the start. The course featured a incline (grade) up one side and a matching descent on the other. The hill meant it was easy to move up early on and I spent most of the race about 20 back. About 2/3rds of the way through the 50 minute crit, there was a crash that put two bike down in front of me…it was going up the hill (3rd street) so it was a lower speed crash where I basically tumbled over the other bikes. After extracting my bike from the other two…I put the chain back on an rode back to the pit. After getting started, my rear wheel felt funny so I spent about 2-3 laps at the back trying to safely adjust my brakes… I am not sure if I did anything…but it seemed to get better. (My front wheel which was fresh from the shop is now once again out of true due to the crash. I only suffered a few minor abrasions and a scuff on my skinsuit).
As the laps ticked off, I tried to advance every lap…mostly going up the hill. But in the end, I only ended up in 26th place. Sort of disappointing since I felt pretty good for the race. I wish I would have been a little more aggressive moving up… picking off 3-4 / lap was not good enough to really move up after the crash. Criteriums have never really been my strength, but I am changing that.
During the race, I know I was using my teammate Aaron Parker as a marker to move up at times… in the end he was better positioned and moved up in the sprint to get a 6th place.
The photos above were taken by Matt West (Andrea was busy getting ready for her race, Women P/1/2/3…which she won!). I plan to post up albums when I get home.
