Successful Day at Niwot

I had both a lucky and succesful day today. I was lucky enough to avoid several major crashes that happened around me.

In the 35+ 4's I felt strong and felt like I was able to continually move up when I needed to. And for the first time this season I was actually mentally in the race. I knew how much time / how many laps were left. I was plotting out a plan of how I can possibly win this thing AND for the first time I was actually in an excellent position.

Right before the 5 lap counter was posted I was sitting in the 2nd spot and was feeling good. Then the swarming started and I did best to hold my position.

On the 1st straight away on the last lap I lost several spots. However, on the 2nd straight away I was able to make them back up. At this point the pace seemed to have slowed so I figured I'd just sit in a bit longer on the straight away and jump after the left turn coming out of the straight away. Unfortuntately I did not have a good left turn so when I jumped it was too late. In hindsight I wish I would have been 1st to the left hand turn.

And then on the next turn (1st greater than 90 degree turn) the guy in front of me did not have such a good turn and I had to smash my breaks to avoid him. It's never good when you are smashing your breaks in a crit. On the last greater than 90 degree turn I came in too hot and ended up riding on the sidewalk, after bunny hopping off I put in a final sprint effort.

I ended up 9th which is really good for me. Each race is a learning experience and I sure learned alot on how not to ride a last lap on this one. But all in all this race was a nice breakthrough for me.

Mike Dancel