Nebo, Graduation, Washington, and Jaajuh.

I'm in Georgia right now for Nationals and the heat just feels great. Since the beginning of June I've done the Mt Joy RR where I finished 16th and the Mt Nebo RR where I finished 16th. Mt Nebo was a great race though. It was a really hard course and pretty much ran as a race of attrition. I stayed as far forward as I could and went as hard as I could when I needed to, but in the end I was slow up the finishing hill and finished where I did.

Nathan has been home also, to spend some time in the warmth before we came down here. I graduated high school and we went out to a really cool new restaurant called Mala Tang Sichuan Hot Pot.

This past weekend I did Washington County which was also a great race. I didn't do super good in the prologue, finishing 38th. In the RR, unfortunately I flatted on the first lap, got a bad wheel change for a wheel that only had three cooperative gears for me, and then missed the next turn. I got to within 45 seconds off the field, but after two laps of hard chase I just conformed to riding the rest mellow. It was a pretty course though and a nice place to ride so I didn't mind.

Day 2 went pretty well for me. I rode the time trial on my heavy powertap training wheel, since the timing didn't work out to borrow the TT wheels from Nathan. I put in a good effort though and finished 31st. An extra 30 seconds, which I could have gained from a disc wheel and even more if I had the front tri-spoke too, would have put me in the top twenty riders.

Feeling still pretty fresh from taking the RR easy, I went into the crit looking to put in my hardest ride of the weekend. I rode in the top five to ten riders for the whole race, following some attacks. With three to go, there was a lull and I hesitated to attack immediately so I got swarmed and ended up at the back of the pack. It was too late to move up and I was starting to lose steam so I played it safe and finished at the back of the depleted field for 25th place.

Oxford Road Race and Crit Season

I didn't write about last weekend but I can give a little summary here. I raced on Saturday at a road race in Pennsylvania. I felt good throughout the race and with 2 laps remaining of a 6.5 mile circuit, the pack was whittled down to only 20 of the 55 starters. Unfortunately, I crashed with two to go and my bike was too messed up to continue. I didn't get injured though so I was fine to do a big ride the next day. I went to Kelly Acres for the first time in a while and did a good ride with Steven, Shane, and David.

As for this weekend, I have heard some people calling this part of the season "crit season," so I'm calling this weekend my crit season. I did BikeJam on Saturday, doing the Juniors in the morning and the 3/4 a little later. The Juniors was fun, being my first time this season doing a local jrs race, but in the 3/4 I felt like I rode a little too conservatively.

Today I did my favorite crit, the Tour of Somerville. The juniors race is short at only 15 miles, but there are always good riders and it is fast. I followed a few moves in the first few laps until Justin got away in a breakaway for several laps. I followed a move across when the gap began to shrink and then countered but was brought back. With six laps to go I countered a big attack during a small lull and got away in a four person breakaway. The race was beginning to slow down, so I was able to stay away until about 2.5 laps to go. We were caught just before the third corner and by the fourth corner I had attacked again, thinking that maybe they would let me go. I was going over 30 miles an hour down the long, wide finishing avenue and a Hot Tubes rider bridged across to me and went flying by. I couldn't get on his wheel and was pretty quickly reabsorbed, so I just sat in and gave it one last burst on the last lap to lead out Justin/Andy. I pulled off at about 250 or 300 meters left and went just slow enough to finish exactly last place. Justin and Andy did great finishing 4th and 13th. Steven was 3rd to Baranoski and Semian.