First Race Report
 

Well, here it goes; my first race and report coming all the way from the Seward Park Spring Crit Classic. So I get there fork over my cash and sign up for Junior B Category (15/16) but today they've thrown us in with the Junior A's as well (17/18). So about hald an hour to start time I go and ride a nearby hill a few times and spin out the legs a bit seeing as I am currently without a trainer. The "Warm-Up" Lap was done at about 30 mph and I was panting like mad at the end. The course is a mere 0.8 miles but has a 200m uphill ad a corresponding 200m downhill sprinkled in. There is only one hard corner which is 140 degree turnaround however there is a medium bank at the bottom of the downhill.

We line up and get the gun and the pack of about 25 stays together for the first lap and then seperates into front and back (I hang with the front). We were doing about 30 on the downhill and the flat after the downhill, climbing at about 18mph and hammering the pace. Slowly the front group split into two and I drifted to the back of the second group. About 5 laps in, they picked up the pace and left me behind which put me somewhere between the original front group and the rear group. Slowly, people starting fading out on the hill so I managed to make back some time on the back half of the front group.

I managed to lap most of the slower group and got lapped by the front group on the last lap which puts me in probably 13 or so out of 25. I stopped and went over to the group of Racers having a chat and talked about the race with them and then headed back for rollout. The end stats were roughly 11 miles in a little over 25 minutes and an average of 20.3 mph even with like 2 miles of climbing.

Sounds like a really good job for your first race. Keep it up!!

Hey nice job! Sounds like you rode hard, smart and stayed out of trouble.

Hey sweet, I was in the same race as you yesterday. Yea I ride B, for Oh Boy Oberto, thats cool to see a fellow junior rider from washington here. Yea seward is probably the best of the races in the junior tour, mainly because it has only one bad turn, which isn't even that bad. Unfortunately when that course gets slick, it's impossible not to crash...

Sweet! you probably saw me in the "Hardcore Juniors" jersey; neon green...maybe? Did you stay with the front pack or were you off the back with the rest of us mortals?

lets see, there was the lead group with ryan bibko (oh boy oberto) ryan miller (greggs trek) and a few dudes from rad racing. Then of course, there was Steve Fischer and Ian Crane from Rad who pulled a 1-2 win by leading from the group (our coach sure talked to us about letting them do that too...) and the second group with probably you in it along with me yes. I'm normally pretty hazy about who's who during a race except for a few people I know pretty well, and of course my team. I think I saw a neon jersey, I thought it was yellow though.

Anyway, I'm glad you liked the race. Are you considering any of the other Junior Tour Races?

Definately...I just went to watch the Boat Street Crit but I'll be back for the Masters Crit on June 18 and probably Derby Days in July 8. When summer comes around I'll probably also do a few Thursday Crits and hopefully the State Hillclimb TT at Crystal.