We were told by weather.com that we had a 0% chance of showers, but driving down we realized that we might not be so lucky as we encountered some sprinkles.
We arrived in Racine and parked on the lake, the course was a pretty fun 8 – corner criterium, it had a very mild climb also. The back straight was a little bit of a mine field, I have never seen or done so much bunny hopping in a race.
We lined up with the intention of taking it a little easier than days past. I had decided to focus on the sprint today and decided to ride in the field for the day. Mark and Geoff also decided to not go in a breakaway but rather keep the field together for me.
The first break went in the first several laps and was brought back with a lot of work from Mark and Geoff. We then got a little sprinkle which turned into enough to coat the roads and make it slippery. I believe only one rider crashed when he skidded out, although throughout the rain many people got gapped and dropped in the corners and abandoned.
The roads started to dry and the speeds picked up a bit with that. Another break went which Geoff did a lot of work to reel in. A solo rider attacked in the straight and took a couple corners fast and the field seemed lax about reeling him in. Geoff drove the field hard to bring him back but there wasn’t much interest in bringing him back as one rider even said he didn’t want to work with geoff because it would help us win.
Coming into the final lap I was on Geoff’s wheel and we were sitting about 8th and 9th wheel coming into the 4th to last turn. On the 3rd to last turn the rider in front of Geoff let a big gap open up. We managed to close it coming as we turned the final turn but by then several guys had a decent advantage. I came around Geoff and only had time to pass a few riders leaving 2 ahead in the field and 1 up the road.
I ended up 4th on the day just one off the podium, Geoff was 6th, and Mark was 19th.
Good course, I wish the fields were bigger and populated with more teams. Tomorrow is a crit in Kenosha.
Peter