Saturday, March 1st (afternoon): The downtown Merced crit is always a bit dicey. It's not NRC this year, but that didn't diminsh the speed or pro team attendance. With Bissell, Kelly Benefits, BMC, Rock, Colavita, Successful Living, Chris Horner (Astana!!!), CA Giant Strawberries, and LaGrange (and us) at the races, it was gonna be fast! In years past, Merced was always the first NRC and the first outing for pro teams which made for nervous racing. It's not an easy course; it's bumpy so you really have to concentrate and manage the course. Add in the constant battling for position to take the primo lines and it generally makes for a stressful race. Plus there's always a crash (or 2); I've seen broken backs, collarbones, legs, and wrists at this race!! Eeeeek! I never know what to expect and usually go into it with a goal of throwing in a few attacks, stay up, and finish. This year I had Sky and Jose with me-I haven't had Cat 1 teammates for 2 years! Goal one was to get a good start=done Sky and I were on the front row! Goal two was stay there=we did!
Goal three was try and make something happen=this one was a lot harder. Sky and I kept our noses in the action, but we were both outta gas by the finale. I got caught behind the inevitable last lap crash, but stayed up.
Jose and Skyler were further back and avoided the crash and rolled in safely. A break had been up the road and Alejandro Borrajo, Chris Horner, and Ben Jacque-Mayne lapped the field and finished in that order. Horner was fearless in the final laps diving into corners- just goes to show that when your a world class racer that means world class at everything! Unfortunately BJM got caught in the crash, but got up and rolled in for 3rd. All in all a good day. Swamis were mixing it up with the big boys
Saturday, March 1st (afternoon): The downtown Merced crit is always a bit dicey. It's not NRC this year, but that didn't diminsh the speed or pro team attendance. With Bissell, Kelly Benefits, BMC, Rock, Colavita, Successful Living, Chris Horner (Astana!!!), CA Giant Strawberries, and LaGrange (and us) at the races, it was gonna be fast! In years past, Merced was always the first NRC and the first outing for pro teams which made for nervous racing. It's not an easy course; it's bumpy so you really have to concentrate and manage the course. Add in the constant battling for position to take the primo lines and it generally makes for a stressful race. Plus there's always a crash (or 2); I've seen broken backs, collarbones, legs, and wrists at this race!! Eeeeek! I never know what to expect and usually go into it with a goal of throwing in a few attacks, stay up, and finish. This year I had Sky and Jose with me-I haven't had Cat 1 teammates for 2 years! Goal one was to get a good start=done Sky and I were on the front row! Goal two was stay there=we did!
Goal three was try and make something happen=this one was a lot harder. Sky and I kept our noses in the action, but we were both outta gas by the finale. I got caught behind the inevitable last lap crash, but stayed up.
Jose and Skyler were further back and avoided the crash and rolled in safely. A break had been up the road and Alejandro Borrajo, Chris Horner, and Ben Jacque-Mayne lapped the field and finished in that order. Horner was fearless in the final laps diving into corners- just goes to show that when your a world class racer that means world class at everything! Unfortunately BJM got caught in the crash, but got up and rolled in for 3rd. All in all a good day. Swamis were mixing it up with the big boys
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