First Win!

Lately, I have had a string of near-wins and almost-wins (not to mention never keeping up with Nate in sprints) that had me wondering if I'd ever actually win.  And then somehow I manage to do it today in Cedarburg on a climb/descent crit.  The 4-corner course consisted of a solid climb for about a third of the course, a flat, and then a sweeping descent with the final turn being just narrow enough that some were compelled to brake.  And, of course, the S/F was on a short climb. Needless to say, this course was not for burrito-inhalers like me.  And 15 laps into it, I thought I was going to fall off the back and burn up (like yesterday at Holy Hill when my chain died, my rear hub came loose and the neutral support drove around me...fail). 

A lap later, my heart rate dropped 20 bpm, my legs perked up, and I felt good!!  The field thinned a bit each lap as the climb ate the weak.  Sitting about fifth wheel on the last lap, we kicked up the climb and no one tried anything brutal there, to my suprise.  Two corners left, I'm still fifth wheel.  Horstmeyer (Wisco's Padfield) was out front and hit the fourth turn hard...too hard.  He clipped his pedal coming out of the turn and with some nervous grace, I slipped through the 6 or so inches between his head and the curb.  As the bodies started piling up behind us, I nudged out Henry from Pegasus and a few others at the line.  Yee-HAH!! 

A side-note, the posters from Evanston were great.  There were Spidermonkeys everywhere!  I haven't been able to come out to a group ride for quite a long time, so it was nice to see everyone.  

Alex