Memorial Day Weekend - CapTech, Raleigh, Bike Jam, CSC Invitational, and Tour of Somerville
by Shannon Hutchison
For all the criterium lovers out there this
was your weekend! There were 5 crits in a row:
Cap Tech Classic
Raleigh Twilight
Bike Jam
CSC
Tour of Somerville
I skipped out on the first in the series. Cap
Tech is an extremely hard criterium. A hard uphill
section that has a QOM and then a super fast
downhill section that can scare even the toughest
of racers. I had to much stuff to do and decided
to save my guns for Friday and on.
Friday morning I went for a quick spin down
to the track and back. I was breifly stopped
by a guy asking about my Bianchi. Hopefully,
he came by the shop and is out and about on his
new bike.
We drove for about 6 hours up to Raleigh, NC.
It was a long way! I was a little out of it when
we got there, but started my little warm up on
the course. The course was U shaped with a couple
of nice little hills. I was going to be riding
my new super fast Zipp wheels! YEAH!
The race started and it was a pretty good field.
Ford Basis, Victory, BMW-Bianchi, and Tamarack
just to name a few. About half way through my
back tire flatted. I didn't have a radio so I
wasn't sure how to tell Jeremy that I needed
a wheel change. One of the Bianchi girls I asked
to yell for Jeremy so that he could be ready.
I didn't think that he had put any wheels in
the pit. As I slowly rolled up to the pit the
announcer yelled out how I had a rear flat.
Jeremy grabbed his bike off the car and took
his rear wheel off for me and ran to the pit.
The pitman fixed me up and the official waited
so long to push me in! I had to go like mad to
get on to the back of the pack! That was horrible!
In the end there were tons of primes and I had
wished that I felt better and could go for them.
I just waited to the end and the final sprint.
Going into the last corner a girl attacked on
the left and I jumped to her, just as the field
went on the right side. I had been suckered.
I went into the final corner in 6th or so and
passed two to finish 4th. I just hoped that my
legs felt better on Saturday!
