NC State Crit Championships

This past Monday on Memorial Day I went to race at the state criterium championships. This is a very flat course with lots of pot holes and cobbles on the course. It was a pretty rough course. I have been waiting for this race all season and my dad kept reminding me of that all morning. I think the field was really a good one. There were some very good riders in the 10-14 year old class. The race started and I got a bad start because I did not clip in my pedal very well. But a strong rider named Korby Chappel got a bad start too so I was not too worried. Then in the second corner my teammate Louis Guillen crashed very hard. Because of my bad start I was behind the crash. I did not go down, but really had to take action not to crash over Louis. I came out of the corner in 4th place and never improved my position. For a few laps on my own I kept the gap to the top 3 constant, but then I started falling back. I ended up in 4th place at the finish. I was upset to say the least, but that is bike racing and you have to live with bad luck sometimes. Louis was not hurt too bad.

There were lots of crashes in every race that we saw. My friend Wyatt Briggs finished 3rd in the older junior race and then did the Cat 1,2,3 mens race. He rode awesome but had a terrible crash with only 2 laps to go. His back was totally tore up and bloody. Wyatt is tough and I am glad he is not hurt too bad!! Charlie Brown won this race and his masters race. He is a great rider.

I was not going to race until the state road race championships, but there is a real nice race in Richmond, VA this weekend that I want to do. I get to stay with my grammi and poppa and then go to the race on Sunday. I raced there last year and really liked the course. I hope to do both the junior race and the cat 5 mens race.

Kenny van Hummel is now leading the UCI Europe Tour standings!! He gets to wear a special white jersey in all his races for the month of June. Sweet!!

Last, I want to congratulate my teammate Thomas Wrona for such a great weekend of racing at the Tour of Atlanta. He got a couple of wins in the mens cat 4 races and now has enough points to become a cat 3 racer. Great job!!