Fort Ritchie Crit 5/7/2011

Yesterday was the 2011 Fort Ritchie Crit in Cascade, MD. The weather was nice and sunny by the time the Men's Cat4 started at 3:30 in the afternoon. There was a little wind, but certainly nothing like what we saw at the Carl Dolan and Chantilly races. I haven't seen the race results yet, so I'm not sure how many started in the field. For our team (Capital Region Fire and Police Cycling), we actually had 3 of us there. It's not much compared to teams like NCVC or SynFit, but considering we're only in our second year as a team, I'm glad to see that we're getting out there. In the above picture, that's me chewing on my earphones cord (really, just keeping it out of the way of my hands), Dennis in the middle, and Steve on the far end. Dennis raced the 3/4 earlier in the morning and took 8th, and this is Steve's first year back racing after a few years off. Both are normally very strong. My strategy for this race was simply to keep touch with the pack. After getting completely dropped in Chantilly, I figured it was a good goal. Overall, the race was pretty quick-paced and the competition good. Of course, I could point out several guys that need to do some serious work on holding their lines, or having better spacial-awareness, but it wasn't overly treacherous. I managed to hang on throughout the race, sometimes finding myself sitting in the top five or so, and then going all the way to the back...but I never lost touch. Steve flatted maybe on lap 5 of the 60 minute race, and by the end, Dennis had nothing left in the tank (after racing earlier). I could have pushed a little harder and finished a little higher at the line, but with the Richmond crash still fresh in my mind, I'm still getting used to fighting for my position. It was a fun race, with music playing all day, and the occasional announcing by Joe. Next on the schedule is BikeJam on 5/28, followed by Ride Sally Ride, and the Tour of Washington County.

**edit** Just looked at the results, and I finished 26th out of the 40 that started. I'll take that at this stage of my Cat4-ness.