My excitement for the road season has been on the wane since Toona. I'm still searching for those two points I need to upgrade, but the fire to race for them isn't there much anymore. So much the same way I was wishing I was home last week in Christiana, I wasn't thrilled even to drive up to Williamsport, MD, just outside of Hagerstown. At least I was finally able to get back to church this week and the race wasn't until 3:15.

Once I got there, I was focused on doing my best. I warmed up with Jordan Cross around the streets of the town before doing a few hard efforts and then making my way to the start line. I didn't want to spend the first laps getting to the front the way I had at Christiana, so I got there early. I was able to clip in fairly quickly and it didn't take much effort to make it to the front.

The course was a very short loop of just over a kilo in length. It finished on a slight uphill and was basically a four corner course. The second corner led into a fast downhill section and the final corner was a bit acute--that's where 3 crashes happened in the race.

From the gun, it was pretty clear that Harley would be controlling this one. They did a great job of sending rider after rider just up the road. The attacks were a bit half-hearted and were each brought back easily but slowly. At any one point there would be 2-3 Harley riders leading the field. It's pretty obvious what you can do when you have guys like Fife, Escobar, Samuuel, and Chamberlain in the same race. They're all very capable and strong crit riders and when working as a team they're tough to beat alone.

For my part, I had Steve and Jordan in the race, but together we couldn't really do much. After a few laps of seeing Harley dictate the pace, some attacks from other folks started to drop in. Ken Young attacked once and I latched on along with three other riders. It was pretty early seeing as we had 20+ laps to go, but I figured seeing the way the Masters race before us had gone, this was a course where a group working together could get away. I think I was right, but we'll never know because my shouts of, "Let's work together," and "Pull through" went unheeded. We were brought back in short order.

A few laps later, I got bored and decided after a half-hearted attack that hey, the gap behind me is kinda big. So I put my head down and started time trialing. I was hammering with all I had and I was gonna find out one way or another if I have any fitness after my lack of training. Well, I kept hammering and the gap kept getting bigger. I had Jess as well as a Jordan (lapped) and Walter giving me time gaps.


My lead ballooned to it's highest point at 22 seconds up on the field. That was pretty big and I started to ponder whether I actually had a chance doing what I was doing. I still didn't think so with all the heavy hitters that were chasing me, but ya never know. My lead started to drop some and my legs were crying Uncle with about 12-13 laps to go. To make matters worse, I had a stitch in my side and my Gatorade was horrible since it was so hot out.

My lead went to 15s, then 12s, and then they were on me. When Jose came around me I told him, "It's about damn time." After that, I sat up behind him and tried to open up to get the cramp out. I worked only marginally and I was hurting so bad cardio and leg-wise that it was the least of my worries. I tried to settle in to the pack, but given there were only 6-8 laps remaining, there wasn't much settling going on back there.


I think it was with about four laps to go that I started to fade and a group of eleven riders went up the road. By the time I started to make up any ground on them, I heard the bell and it was too late. I held my position alone with an LSV/Kelly rider on my heels. Coming out the last corner, I noticed Ken Young had gone down leaving 10 riders finished. I thought I had the LSV/Kelly guy beat but I looked behind the wrong way and he came around on my right. I gave it my best effort to sprint, but he got me and I finished a not terrible, but not helpful, 12th.

Was I stupid to try a solo break 20K+ from the finish? Of course ;-) But that's what I do every now and then and this was the course to try it on. As they say the pros do, at least I got our name out there. The announcer was at least saying Coppi for a while.

As soon as I finished, I was immediately aware of how hot it'd become and it was all I could do to get over to the concessions area, find some shade and get a nice COLD Gatorade to drink. I just sat on the floor and held my bike up with one hand. My head was pounding and I was exhausted. As far as crits go, I enjoyed the course. It was generally pretty safe--with that last turn excepted. And I'm too much of a fraidy cat to take that turn to hard anyways. It's also nice to go such a short distance (1:30) from home--at least until I-70 backs up!