Central Valley Classic Criterium

By Brooke Miller
Date: March 12, 2006
Category: Women 1/2
Filed Size: 64
Teammates: Amy, Kelly (guest)
Place: 27th
Winner: Lauren Franges, Victory Brewing

The course was funky and fun if you like to sprint out of corners. I do! I do! There was a straight away going through the start/finish, then after about 200m there was a 180-degree turn that got the field to slam on the brakes (skidding sometimes), come to a near-complete stop and then sprint out of the corner again.

I figured that with that corner, the field would be likely to split in the first lap meaning that the race was likely to come down to who could clip in and get good position quickly. I also figured that breaks would be easy to get going and to stick because a string of 5 or 6 riders could hit the corner fast, but the pack bottlenecked to a near standstill on it.

I had a horrible clip in from the start, but I got lucky and was able to find a couple wheels that moved me up. I was feeing strong and excited to be in that crit. I was immediately scrapping for strong wheels to move me up after the bad start and found some. About 15 minutes in or so, not sure when, Kim Andersen started to move up, and when T-Mobile women move around, you know that they know what they are doing. So, I got in behind her. That move led into an attack that broke off the front, barely, but I was hanging in on it working and hoping it would stick around the 180. Nope. That attack got caught and immediately another attack was launched. Come hell or high water, I was going to be in a break that stuck! So, I jumped on that one too. I was working pretty hard and we got swarmed again by the pack. This time, I ended up moving down to about 20-30th place and was never able to move up again the rest of the race.

I ended up pulling 27th place hanging on for a fast last five laps. Amy and Kelly finished in the pack.