Rock Hill: Old Downtown Criterium

This weekend marked our furthest travel from home yet with a pair of races down in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The race consisted of a crit on Saturday and road race on Sunday. Since it's still Sat night, I'll only be talking about the crit for now. It was 40 laps of a .8mi (1.28km) for a total distance of 32 miles (51.2km). The course had 6 turns, a slight downhill run down the back straight, then uphill and round the corner to the finish.

Me by the course near Winthrop University.

Despite the fact that it was quite a technical crit I actually quite enjoyed it. Below is a pic of me rocking out in the crit.


Though I wasn't flying through the course like my team mate Dan, seen below off the front off the race.

Instead I was just sitting in the bunch making fun of my team mate (I'm forthback, kinda blurry, but you might be able to make out what I'm doing with my middle finger), who should have been in the race still, but needs to HTFU!!!

But really this little guy looks a lot better on his bike he does.


But to cut a long story short, I felt a lot more comfortable in that crit than I would have in the past. Last year I would have been one of the many riders being shelled, or at least one of the others left having tear myself apart to stay in contact. Though I do still have a lot of improving to do, as I couldn't quite wriggle my way far enough up to finish near the front, instead only finishing mid pack somewhere. Still, every race I'm learning, and every ride I'm getting stronger. Better luck tomorrow, I hope.