HART Criterium - 8-23-09

The HART criterium was held today in south Denver. I really like this course as it has a couple hills, no sharp dangerous turns, and it's usually pretty fast. I was feeling tired at the start, but after about 15-20 minutes, I was warm and feeling pretty good. Marty, Chris, Tim Srenaski, and myself represented our team today of the 40-something group of P12s. We were all doing our parts to get in different breaks, but we missed the one that eventually got away. I actually never knew there was a big group in front of us, so I was surprised to hear of it at the finish.

Anyway, this course allows for resting on two downhills of the 1.3 mile course and I put them to good use. I won a prime early on, then recovered and tried to stay near the front to get in any good breaks. With about 20 minutes to go, Marty rolled off the front and tried to bridge up to the break, but the break was just a little too far up the road and he didn't make it. Towards the last few laps, our peloton split a bit. Chris got shelled off the back, I got in a chase group with 5 others and Marty and Tim were in the main peloton. Our chase group stayed away from the pack, but we never caught the break. I took 3rd or 4th in our sprint to the line for 14th overall.

I'm actually pretty pleased with the result because I did a hard workout the day before and wasn't fully recovered. One more solid week of training, then a rest week before the Steamboat Stage Race. I expect to be in good form if I can stay on target.