Superior Bike Fest - Crit

Alright, so this isn't the update you were waiting for, but this one is by far more interesting.

This past weekend was the fricken awesome Superior Bike Fest up in Marquette. 3 days of race with a tough crit on Friday, an undulating road race on Saturday and a fast circuit race on Sunday.

The crit was an 8 turn course that is pretty much downhill from turn 1 to turn 5, then it shoots back uphill after turn 6 to the start line. It was fast, the whole time. About 35ish riders were on the start line. When the official blew his whistle there was a battle between Brett Beddow and me for control of the front of the peloton. I eventually got to the front and pulled the peloton through the second turn and nearly overshot it, keeping the bike upright in the gutter with everyone behind me doing the same. No one had taken the corner at speed to realize it was so narrow. That corner 2 laps later would be the cause of 5-6 guys crashing at the front of the peloton, including Taylor Birmann who slammed into a light post. Taylor got back up and in the race, but some of the others weren't so lucky. That same corner would later be the cause of 2 more crashes.

Because the pace was so high, we were shelling riders off the back quickly. Then when I was on the front of the peloton I heard a crash behind me and when I got to the finishing straight, I discovered Mark Bush was missing from our team. He had crashed and broken his collar bone into 3 pieces and it was almost coming through the skin. I now focused my energy to help York win the crit, because we were the only 2 MCG guys left in the small group. So I would go to the front and pull hard for a lap, drop back to recover then go right back to the front and push the pace to get rid of as many riders as possible. I have to thank teammate Colin Snyder for working back to the peloton after being dropped and helping me when I was dangling after doing my pulls.

With 2 laps to go Andrew Florian attacked on the uphill while I was at the front of the group. My options were to chase him down or go with him. I chose the later. He told me afterward that he was trying to drop me on the hill and he came close, but I just dropped my head and soldiered on. I eventually caught him and we immediately started working together. We had a huge gap, but someone in the peloton asked their teamate to expend himself to catch us, and they did. So Florian sat up and I just kept going hoping maybe I could out ride the group in the last .7 miles. I was riding as hard as I could, the croud of 2000ish people all cheering on my last effort. I looked down under my seat as I was approaching the 3rd corner, I was caught. So I took the corner wide and eased up a little. It wasn't the peloton. Kuyper had bridged up to me and I had mistaken him for the peloton. By the time I realized this, it was too late, I had screwed up and lost my podium spot. Kuyper would go on to win the crit a half mile later with Jones in 2nd and York 3rd. I finished just off the back of what remained of the peloton, behind Colin, in 10th place.

After the race I picked up Mark's equipment and took it back to my hotel. Later that night Sarah (Mark's fiance) came by to drop off the other bike so she didn't have to drive around with it on the car all weekend. She was not having a good night, that was for sure. She had to go back to the campground 30 miles away to get stuff for Mark and it was dark, she didn't know where she was going and she would have to go back to the campground to sleep and return early in the morning because the hospital wouldn't let her stay there.

Well sometimes friendship comes before racing. (Rarely I know) But I decided to go to the campground with Sarah because I know the area pretty well. We then went to the hospital to see Mark and make sure he was comfortable. Then I offered to lat Sarah stay at the hotel with me and my parents because it was 9 blocks from the hospital. It was 2am when I finally went to bed. Road Race start time: 10:25am.