Tour of Lawrence Day 2 - Crit

Cat 4

This was a good day... and it was a good day to have a good day.

I love the Tour of Lawrence.

Our race wasn't till 3pm so quiet Brian, Brady and myself lounged at my place watching the tour and eating pancakes. Because of this i unfortunately missed X's race and her last lap kamakazi move, which apparently almost worked.

I got to Lawrence pretty early, had an expresso at Bougiswa Pig, and did a short but good warm up. Lined up on the second row and for the first time in a while got clipped in immediately.

It took 5 or 6 laps but after that i felt great. There was a stiff headwind on the back side but besides that the course was wide open and fast. I was having no trouble moving around, from a strength standpoint or from a smarts standpoint. If i had to get out of the saddle and hammer, i could, but there were also all these great lines nobody was taking. 

One comical moment came with 2 laps to go when everyone jammed a turn. The guy to my left is screaming "inside, inside!" and then the guy to his left starts screaming "inside, inside!". After the turn i asked how "how many insides are there?", after a short pause the reply came,"a lot". I'm not one for talking during a race but if it keeps everyone upright then i'm all for it.

I guess i did say "You really want that wheel, don't you?" to a guy who rather aggressively forced me off a wheel in the 2nd lap. I was having fun all day.

Despite feeling good and having the corners down my position was not great at the start of the last lap. I managed to move up a bunch with a big move on the rise after turn 4, followed by some fast and aggressive lines around the remaining turns. It was a great feeling to be approaching the last turn, hands in the drops, knowing that i was getting some of my old ability back. X said i was 11th at the final turn and i ended up 12th at the line. That's an improvement over my 15th place last year.

Very fun race.

I know i had the strength for a top 5 but this was one of my best results ever. Last week at Tour of KC I faltered with 1/2 lap to go, this week i had more than enough in the tank to be aggressive.

Very stoked.