Volunteer Park Criterium

Yesterday was the Volunteer Park criterium. I had an OK race. I stayed in the group but didn't do much to help out teammates. We had a large women's field which is great but now I have to get used to moving around in a big field. I had three teammates in the race, Heather, Heidi, and Annette. Heidi got a flat early on. Heather was racing in her first Washington race since she just moved here from Colorado. Annette did great getting 4th over all and picking up a $20 prime. I have a picture of her below with the "loot".

I need to get better at moving to the front of the group. I wasn't having a problem moving up but I would get 1/2 way up and then loose my position before the next lap. Annette gave me some hints and stuff to work on for the next race. After Annette got the prime she was briefly on the back and I thought, perfect, I will just follow her back up to the front. But as I watched her glide up to the front I was not able to do the same. It is deceptively easy when someone else does it.

I hung in until the finish but on the very last corner there was a bad crash and four riders went down. I think they are all OK but they did have to take two away in the ambulance. I hope they recover quickly.

Mark's race was the one after mine but just as he got to the race one of his brakes broke. His race was delayed by the ambulance so we switched the pedals on our bikes and he raced my bike! Good thing we are the same size! Except he changed the seat height and I forgot to mark it first - oops. He had no problem at all racing on a different bike and made it look easy as usual. No crashes in his race I think they were all being extra careful.


There were some good pictures of us both on Wheels in Focus:
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Volunteer/W123/pages/94AD0677vp.htm
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Volunteer/W123/pages/94AD0730vp.htm

http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Volunteer/3/pages/94AD0846vp.htm
http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/2009/Volunteer/3/pages/94AD0932vp.htm