Sunday was the day for one of my favorite races on the collegiate calendar, the UW Madison Crit. They hold this four corner crit around the state capitol building. It was a fast and nervous course last year (averaged almost 26 mph in Men’s C), but there were tons of people who came out to see the race. The weather was a pretty nasty overcast and 45 degrees F when we got there, which was not pleasant after Saturday’s 75 and sun. The forecasted rain held off for all the categories leading up the Men’s A race. My teammate Eric broke away with two other riders in the Men’s B race, and stayed away from a very fast field and his breakaway companions in the end for the win. By the time my start time came it was looking like rain was imminent. I rolled up to the line to see a good sized field of about 50 riders. The attacks started from the gun and did not stop for the whole 75 minute race. About 7 laps in I punctured my rear wheel. We were going almost 30 coming into a turn and I was in the middle of the peloton. I put my hand up and yelled flat, which to my surprise actually worked! I started fishtailing while trying to slow down and slightly turn so I didn’t run into the curb. Luckily there was a cross walk and I hopped up onto the side walk and was able to stop. After a quick wheel change I was back in on the next lap. About 2 laps later there was a huge crash which caused a big split in the field. I was able to avoid it and make it across the gap to the group ahead. At this point the rain started pouring to the point where there was standing water in the turns. My teammate Sean went down twice during the race along with many others. Luckily I stayed upright throughout the race and made it into a smaller chase group of the main breakaway. I took the sprint from our group for what I thought was about 12th place.
-Nick
