Snake Alley Criterium

Snake Alley is a hard enough race as it is. This weekend hasn’t looked the best all week with bronchitis and the weather. Go figure it decides to rain hard during my race on Saturday. I was so close to not even racing. The only reason I did was because my family showed up. So without a warm up and little pre-race preparation, I made my way to the start line. The race was 12 laps up the Snake…ouch! Fortunately I had a front row spot. Don’t know if it was a good thing or not. Surprisingly there were 30 racers. Anyway, the race took off. My goal was just to finish. I had no idea how my lungs were going to handle the climb. The race started without any rain but the course was wet. I had some rain tires that seemed to work awesome. I was able to stand up on the climb. To me, the climb was almost a recovery place. It seemed like the race was going pretty slow up the Snake. Probably because people didn’t want to slip out on the bricks. The downhill was sketchy and the manholes even worse. I ran over on once and my back tire slid out. Mid-race the skies opened up and it poured and got really windy. That was scary. I couldn’t see where I was riding. Anyway, I felt good and my lungs didn’t burn. I just kept riding with the lead chase group. There were 3 girls up the road. I guess we were gaining on them, but the last few laps they had quite a gap on us. The last lap came and Kathren Walberg pushed the pace up the hill for the final time. I stuck on her wheel through the downhill. Her teammate Samantha Schneider was with us. It was us three sprinting for 4th. I came across 6th. I just didn’t have it for the sprint. I was a little nervous with the water and all. Also, my tires had 90 PSI and I could definitely feel it on the straights. All in all I was pleased with the race. Honestly, I’m glad it rained. I think the race would have been 10 times harder if it hadn’t rained. That’s all for now. Pictures to come soon!
-A