Snake Alley and Melon City Crit in Iowa, plus the Free Wheels For Kids KC Crits

Snake alley ( Burlington, IA)

Had an amazing first 3 laps and was in the lead group. Faded hard after that and finished pretty much right in the middle of the 40 person field. 

I'm the definition of an average cat 4.

Melon City Crit (Muscatine, IA):

Felt better than I realized and should have attacked instead of waiting to for someone else to do the same thing at the bottom of the final climb. I had no problem responding and could have done better that my 9th place finish. 

I was a little gun shy due to my disappointing performance they day before but I'm terrible at taking chances.

Not the recipe for good bike race results.

Free Wheels for Kids Crits, day 1 (KC, KS)

Doubled up. 4/5 race was first and after weathering the initial Micah Effect (which dominated both days if racing, both 5's and 4/5's) found myself in the chase group. A flat approaching one lap to go ended what could have been a good result. Did the 3/4 race and got dropped with 3 to go. Satisfied with that. 

Free Wheels for Kids Crits, day 2

Felt tired during the races. Micah again got off the front immediately in the 4/5, then Matt and two other guys. So I followed wheels until a dude yelled at me for not pulling. We kissed and made up and I pulled when it became apparent we wouldn't catch either Matt or Micah. I knew nobody was catching Micah. 

It's probably a good thing he yelled at me because the next big chase group almost caught us at the line. I pulled the last half lap to ensure we stayed away but finished one or two places lower because of it, but I cared more about being a nice bike rider than a getting a slightly less mediocre result. 

Felt like crap in the 3/4 race and quit after about 10 min.

Micah blew up both 4/5 races this weekend and racing thru the carnage was pretty fun. Bodies were falling left and right.

Tulsa Tough this weekend. I'm going down there with big ambitions.