Critten in Charleston, SC

On Friday teammates from our womens and mens teams drove to Charleston, SC to race in the Lowcounty VW crit and the SC State Champs crit. It was a long drive, but nice to get down to a warm place to race.

As our women's team raced I warmed up for the Masters Cat 4/5 race. I love this category and always race well. It is both smoother and safer than the normal cat 4 race. I recognized Brett Busby from the Rock Hill Omnium two weeks ago. I knew that if I just followed his wheel I would have a good ride. The pict shows Brett on the front with me 3 riders back. I stayed here for most of the race.

On the final lap I was caught off-guard by riders from the back coming around on both sides. I watch Brett maintain his position and I while I lost mine. I managed to finish 9th. I was riding in the top 5 for most of the race and took one pull with 3 laps to go. Still I felt I road well.

Later in the afternoon I raced the Cat 3/4 race. It was a huge group and I started on the front at the line. After a few laps I found myself falling backwards in the pack. Finally I was on the back. The pace there was smooth and safe. So, I stayed and just closed any gap to the main field in front of me. I managed to finish 33rd out of 70-ish riders. Not so great, but a good ride for me.

After the races we returned to our host home of Larry's (he's a teammate) parents. It was on the coast on James Island and very beautiful. Larry's parents cooked up some Frogmore Stew and it was yummy. I had a couple Porters to prep for the follow day, as I would be racing in the Masters 35+ race since the cat 4 race was so late in the afternoon and I wanted to get home at a decent time.

I watched my teammates race the juniors, women's and cat 5 race. There was a bad crash in the women's race on the final lap and one of our teammates got caught up in it.

I lined up with the masters field.....which is normally the 2nd fastest race of the day at any race. So, I would be in for a great workout and expect no results. I hung on for 8 or 9 laps. Soon my legs became limp. I sat out one lap and jumped back in and hung on for one more lap. Soon I realized that I wasn't going to get to far in this race and my energies could be better spent attending to the teammate that crashed. So I pulled out with a very good idea of what it takes for me to race the masters category.......a lot more time and dedication training!