Zionsville Criterium

The Zionsville Criterium represented the end of the 2011 road season here in Indiana. Judging by the rather sparse turnouts in all the races (we only had about 20 guys in the 3's race), most guys seemed to have 'called it a season' after the Mass Ave Crit. Nevertheless, those of is in attendance had a good time racing on the bricks of downtown Zionsville.

Yancey on the front

With the exception of Sustainable Energy/Upland Brewing, no team had more then two riders in the field. About 12 laps into the 36 lap race (this crit is the only race I've done where we race for X number of laps, as opposed to the more traditional time-based approach), Kyle Perry (Sustainable Energy/Upland Brewing) and John Schmitz (Team Indiebike) established a 20 sec lead on the field.

Riding the bricks

For the next 24 laps, Upland had a total stranglehold on the field (they had at least 4 guys left in the pack). They did a nice job of setting tempo, and responding to any attempts the field made to close the ever-widening gap of the break. Kyle and John took full advantage of the short course (just over a half mile in length), and with 8 or so laps to go the duo lapped the pack. Yancey ended up somewhere around 10th place.

Mass Ave Crit (Indiana State Crit Championship)

Great downtown atmosphere, midwest summer heat & humidity, tough racing - that pretty much sums up this year's New Belgium Brewing Mass Ave Criterium.

We had somewhere between 40-50 starters in the CAT 3, with Yancey, Mygrant, and Ryan representing Blue Ridge Design (Jolivette was hard @ work as a race volunteer). 45 minutes into the 60 min race, the pack completely shattered - the constant accelerations coming out of the >90 degree turns that this triangle-shaped course is famous for was taking it's toll on the field. With about 10 minutes to go, the lead pack had been whittled down to about 17 riders.

Yancey exiting turn 2 (photo by Scott Brooks)

Jeff Ryan in turn 1

With 1.5 laps to go, Yancey lost contact with the pack, got passed by three riders right before the finish, and ended up in 20th. Mygrant was 25th, followed by Ryan in 26th.