State Crit Recap

Results Posted
Patrick Horrigan scored a win in the Cat 3's by a huge margin. He started his sprint from the front headed into the finish hill, and simply pulled away from the rest. The picture shows just how far ahead he was, as he starts his victory salute. Way to go Patrick. Bro Loecken scored a bronze in the M4/5's. Nice job Bryan.

I registered for the Cat 1/2's, but opted to skip it in favor of saving what legs I still had for the Masters 35+ later in the day. It was a good decision. The field was pretty stacked, and they were just flying around the course. There were breakaways here and there, but it kept coming back together. Then, the field was coming through the start/finish area, chasing a group of 3, and we heard that dreaded sound. It turns out the balloons on the barriers (see photo above), blew into one of the bikes, which pulled the barriers into the road, and several folks in the back of the group went down hard. Tone Coughlin ended up breaking his shoulder, and they stopped the race for a few minutes, while the ambulance tended to the wounded. They restarted, and another group of 4 got a gap, and it looked pretty good. With a couple laps to go, the group of 4 grew to 10, and we saw Aric and Timmer bridge the small gap. They were all strung out, but essentially back together as they got the bell. Timmer took a massive pull during the last lap to lead Aric out for the win. Dan Swanson was 2nd, with tenacious Scott Flanders 3rd. What a great race to watch. I felt pretty bad about Tone's bad luck after all the great work he did last weekend. I hope everyone heals fast.

Finally, after sitting around for 8 hours, the Masters 35+ race was on. It was a fairly stacked field, and racing started right from the gun. I rode in the front for the first 5 laps or so, but my legs were still pretty messed up. I ended up getting pushed to the back during the middle of the race, as groups went up the road with no LSC representation. Macy and Golblirsh were forced to chase without my help. With about 6 laps to go, I started to feel better, so I moved to the front. With 4 to go, I decided to string it out and hold it as long as I could. With Painman on my wheel, I rode the front for 3 laps, until I finally cracked at the bell. Painman tried, but couldn't hang on for the finish (In fairness, he's been sick for several weeks). Brian Koeneman ended up taking the win. I was fine with the results, because I knew my legs had no snap for the sprint anyway. I think it is time for a rest. Good timing too, since there aren't any weekend races till July.