Eagle Creek Traditional Crit

Myself, JR, and Slattery were looking super fast in our brand-spankin' new uniforms at the Eagle Creek Traditional Crit on Saturday. This crit is held within Eagle Creek park (as if the name didn't already give that away), and is a one mile loop with a small hill that leads up to the start finish line. We didn't score any impressive results, but the three of us did manage to ride a strong, smart aggressive race. A small break of about four of five riders got a quick gap on the pack about 1/3 way through the hour long race - Hand Center, Mesa Cycles, and MOB squad were all represented, and the horsepower was there to make it stick. I attempted to bridge solo - but was not able to make it across. I did however give a Nebo Ridge rider a free ride up to the break. As soon as I started to fade he jumped around me and easily made it to the break. Next lap around I give it another go, and this time am able to make it up into the break. But, is was all for not, as we were caught about a lap or two later. Everything stayed together up until about 6 or 7 laps to go, when a Hand Center guy just rolled off the front - no one reacted, figuring he would not be able to stay at alone, but the dude went into TT mode and held on for the win. Things kinda gotta dicey in the spring in the end - Myself and JR were both sitting in the top 10 at the base of the climb, but JR got boxed in when he tried to shoot up the outside gap, and the guy directly in front of me pulled out of his pedal about halfway up the climb, swung all the way across the road, and miraculous held it up and avoided a massive pileup.

For a little extra training, I also did the CAT 1/2/3 Crit later in the afternoon, and finish at the back of the pack.

On a side note, big contrats to MJ and Jason, who both skipped the Eagle Creek Crit and instead were in action at the Mission 18 Hour Adventure Race (Versailles State Park), where they scored an awesome 2nd place finish (out of 46 teams)!