Upper Arlington Grand Prix

I was more nervous of this course than the Delaware one, and I had tons of time to warm up on it. I knew that corner 1 required a good line to bypass the rippled pavement with a nice dip. I never figured a good line through corner 2 which had more ripple, and had to apologize to the ladies when I charged at the turn, trying to split our pack, and then realized my line was bad and had to feather the brakes. We split the pack into 4 early, but one of the women didn't want to pull. This gave the OSU woman a chance to bridge. I tried to organize us; I wanted us down to 3 women at most.

Brooke did a great job of pulling hard; I pulled hard. When the men came around us, Brooke was up front, and grabbed one of the last wheels to go by. We all followed suit, and just like yesterday we gradually made our way to about mid field. Sometime into that was when it became just 3 of us--Louanne from yesterday, Brooke, and me. The pace was more inconsistent than yesterday, more jockeying for position, and a lot of hard accelerations out of the turns, but when all was said and done it was a slightly slower pace today. Louanne was ahead of me most of the time, but I wasn't worried. My heart rate was fine, the legs were fine, and I couldn't believe the race was almost over. She chose to go for the prime with 3 laps to go, and that finished her legs.

I moved ahead of her, off Jim's right shoulder, and then on his wheel. With 3/4 of a lap to go, Louanne was still a few riders back, but I knew she was hurting. Jim told me just stay on his wheel, he'd lead me out. We flew through the last 2 corners. Wow! I lost his wheel on the second corner, but not by a lot. He had more sprint than me, so I didn't get the full benefit of the draft. He made sure that no woman was going to pass me. Thanks, Jim!

What I didn't know was that Brooke had also passed Louanne sometime that last lap. Way to go, Brooke! So it was Savage Hill 1-2. Adrianna joined us tonight, and Wendy rounded out our representation. Again, nice job by all.

Now this made up for yesterday now i have to say today lou ann was beastin and shrri was up there on her playin it safe which won her the race i tryed to help all i could, i try mostly to stay with the break and stay on and in the end it payed off and i got a T-shirt so it was worth it all. But any way it was very cool i loved the course i liked the ripple they were like reminders to look into the corners an hit them as hard as you could if i were alone i would have bunny hoped them but it is diffrent in a pase line i guess. Fun fun and the Adriana you rock for coming out i was so glad, and bizz what can i say you did not miss out on much and thanks for coming youshould put up mechancal on the race reports.Thanks jim you helped a lot to bridge me back up.

Another Crit...I survived, I did not wreck any team-mates, and I did manage to beat a couple of people. So, I put it down as another learning experience. And I hope to just get better with each one. Congrats to Shari and Brooke, great job.

Once upon a time I was told to learn a lesson in every race. Tonights lesson: I didn't learn anything last night.

That being said, It was a rather typical crit for the first 3/4 of the race with the exception of Jeff's bike handling exhibition. At 4 laps to go the front of the field resigned itself to a field sprint. Let the cat and mouse games begin. It was at this point I realized I had acquired a Break Away shadow. I slide up so does he, I get out of the saddle and jump he pulls in ahead of me. 2 laps to go the OSU guys loudly exclaimed do we have anyone at the front to which the answer was no, so they move up. Remembering our game plan I was expecting my lead out to pull up and take me up to front. He didn't arrive. At this time we're about to start the last lap. Still no panic.

All of the sudden Joeseph atttacks and tries to take a flyer, well I can't chase a teammate. After the first turn he was quickly swallowed up so with Shari on my wheel I chase up to the group. I should have chased further and pulled myself up to the front 3-4 riders, but I didn't. I lean over to Shari just before setting up for the 3rd turn and said "just grab my wheel, I'll take you the whole way to the line". We enter the 4th and final turn at the fastest pace of all night. Even though at the line I was moving faster then anyone else I didn't have enough time to make up the gap. However I did drag Shari through for the win for the women, to which she later said that I was a teriffic wheel to follow on the last lap.

I let Jim Matson down. I averted a crash early in turn two, got cold feet, and gave up. Sorry Jim.

A fun, fast, fairly open and forgiving course. And it was 10 minutes from my home, to boot. Unfortunately, we were racing with the fast horses.

After the false start caused by pedestrians on the course (scary), the racing started. A few got away and Ryan tried to counter, but the Torelli monkeys were out in numbers and were glued to any move that he made. I wish I had the horsepower to help out. Finally, Ryan got into a move that was chasing an initial break. Unfortunately, the original break lapped what was left of us who were hanging on by our fingernails in the field. After that, it was a matter of the leaders riding tempo at the front in order to keep the chase group from un-lapping themselves. And that is about how it ended.

All in all, a fun race that would have been better in a cat III field. I hung in the pack--barely--and that is not my favorite way to race.

Good course. Very flat. The first two corners were a little bumpy but after that there's nothing to complain about. The 4-5 race had no wrecks from what I can remember, but I did drop off the back 15 minutes in. I couldn't keep on anyones wheel. I know that sometimes that happens, but I have to say that it was a nice race.