While second is a damn good placing and nothing to be ashamed of, I have been doing this racing thing for a long time. I have spent the vast majority of that time Off The Back, with race goals often consisting of "stay with the group", "finish" and "don't puke".
No more. Those goals are no longer acceptable with me. I want to do well. I want to win some races. And winning does not mean coming in second.
When I laid out my racing season, the Hammer Velo crit didn't even cause a second glance. I have never been particularly good at crits and why would I stay in town (instead of camping) for a 30 minute race?
Due to a combination of exhaustion, planning (or lack thereof) and good weather, I ended up racing it.
And I won.
Yes, you are as surprised as I am.
I didn't do it by myself. I have a coach who, no matter how much I protest, will NOT let me accept defeat, and teammates who gave me great lead-outs.
Oh yeah, and I beat a 22-year-old, just out of college, with no kids. :)
It's a strange feeling, this winning thing. I have spent so much time convincing myself that I am mediocre that I find it difficult to accept that it's even possible that I could have won. I'll admit that I even questioned whether the officials screwed up or I screwed up or, I don't know, SOMETHING, because it just seems so improbable to me.
But here's the truth: I won. Period. I'm going to start believing in that.
All photos below (with the exception of the last one) are from Jose Sandoval, a guru of photo taking who does a spectacular job.
A little crit action:
Ahem. Podium:
Crit spectating is serious business:
Crit winners deserve to go camping in the sunshine. So, we did:
