Nature Valley GP Stage 3

Oh the legs didn't turn around so well tonight! But I thanked my lucky stars it was only 1 hour. Stage 3 was a short 1.3k 6 corner bumpy crit. The start finish stretch was lined with thousands of fans; it was a pretty exciting. By the time we finished it was just getting dark.

Racing was super fast off the gun, and the whole pack of around 130 riders were lined out single file, and even getting dropped in the opening laps. My poor legs tonight reflected on my position pretty much the whole day, in the last half of the field. As we all know that’s a horrible place to ride a tight 6 corner crit in, because if you ever had to move up, it would take you about 3 days to get anywhere near the front. I even got caught up in a few crashes, but I kept the rubber side down. I was quite content to just sit in today and let the sprinters have there day, and look forward to tomorrows 163k road race that finishes on another hard circuit. So after an hour of riding the wheels, it came down to 3 laps to go, and a HUGE crash took out most of the front guys. Word on the street is Jelly Belly's train took it too hot into the first corner and crashed the Health Net train, but I don't know that for sure. Just like that I was in the front. My sprinting legs didn't want to come out, so I just rolled across the line somewhere in what was left of the "pack". Pozzy was a few bikes ahead of me, although I think he was feeling a little better than me, as he was riding in the front most of the day. In the end the stage went to Shawn Milne, of Navigators. Full results aren't up yet, and I think the GC changed up a little bit, not sure if it will bump me out of 17th or not, we'll see.

So I'm glad that day is over with, I'm really starting to dislike crits, oh well.

Up next, stage 4, 163k. I'm running out of days to get a good ride in, so I'll be all over the front like white on rice tomorrow. I’ll let you know how we do.