Last night's crit started with a bang! The rain stopped just in time for the men's race though the women hadn't been as fortunate. A turn or two were still a tad humid and despite one crash (that I know of) the race went well. Blasted off from the start with four guys riding from the gun keeping the field at 20" for three quarters of the race. The crit course was fairly technical with 7 corners on a 1,6kms - a  whole new adventure for some on my team and a new one at this pace for others. As always, our mustached rider just rode up to the start as the race was heading out promising me he'd be up towards the front in a lap....yes, I'll admit I was a tad skeptical, but sure enough next lap he was in the mix.

He finished in the group and is now sitting in 6th place in the amateur race....not bad for someone who works full time and is still working from our host house here. Our in-house Texan was caught behind a crash in the first or second lap and unfortunately couldn't make it back on and flew back home this morning. Alec, our cyclocross whiz put his cross skills to work spinning it slightly keeping himself in the front half of the pack the entire race.

Stefan Rothe was full on in the first third of the field looking good though his back looked a little stiff and it seized up on him towards the end causing a wee gap. Our 19 year old wonderkid hung in quite well and wanted to bridge a final split which possibly sent him into oblivion and he took a small gap while the others who didn't have optimal starting positions did a fine job of working themselves up before the cost of the effort kicked in.