Parker Criterium

Sorry for being so slow on updating this thing. I've been busy. Saturday night was the last road racing event of the year for me. It was the Parker Twilight Criterium. Last year this event was an NRC race so it was really well organized. The course was "D" shaped, with only one technical corner. The start/finish line was probably 20 feet from the first corner, so that was kind of scary. This was definitely one of the smaller fields I've raced in out here. Less than 20 people started the race, which took off at 6:25. Our race was 60 minutes long, so by the end it was dark. The first 30 minutes of the race sucked. It was incredibly fast. I checked my average and it was over 26.5mph. This course was really fast that's for sure, or else everyone is in really good shape for cross?

The only team that had numbers was ValueAct. There was a TEAm Lipton girl, a Vitamin Cottage girl, and quite a few other strong people. I did the usual and took off really fast from the start and got a huge gap. Eventually they caught me. A few laps later I decided to go for a prime. I got a huge gap but sat up because no one went with me. Even more laps later, I decided to go for another prime, but along with two other girls. They blew by me about 20 feet from the line so I sat up. The next prime I went for too, but so did another girl who sat on my wheel the entire time and came around me. I think if I would have thrown my bike, I might have gotten the prime, but that would have just been weird. There were tons of primes in this race so it was constant speed up slow down kind of thing. When there wasn't a prime, someone was attacking. I almost got dropped once. I also almost lost my pre-race meal. But I stuck it out until the end. With three laps to go, I made my way to the front and tried to hold position. Two laps to go and Megan Hottman (future teammate) takes a flier. People know who she is and don't let her out of sight. We catch her and someone else attacks. No such luck. It's coming down to a sprint this time. Things heated up as usual. I tried to get closer to the front. Made my way to the finish and picked up an 8th place. I was alright with that, considering I almost got dropped 20 minutes earlier. This was a sweet race for sure. The Pro/1/2 men raced in the dark. Taylor Phinney was there, along with several other fasties. Ok next subject.

I finally found a team for 2008. It's Defined Fitness Training out of Denver. Right now it's primarily a triathlete team. But for next season, the director Megan Hottman, is putting together an Elite Women's Team. Should be a good time and I'm looking forward to it. I'll let you know more details when I find them out.

Jeff Kerkove has been in town this past week. We've hit up a few rides. Sounds like he'll be moving this way soon. It's nice to be able to ride with familiar faces out here.

This weekend is a collegiate mountain bike race in Durango. I'm looking forward to it. It should be an awesome time! That's all for now, take care and have a good one!
-A

P.S. Check out pictures here.