Crit Magic

The crit! My personal favorite stage. I was really excited for this race. The course doesn’t seem like it would be particularly exciting, but there always seems like there is something going on as we are whipping our way through the laps. But first, the start line chatting...


The start/finish straight is long, slightly uphill, and often (as it was today) into a headwind. Then we flip around a rotary of sorts straight into a fast downhill with enough curves to keep everyone on their tows. Finally, there are two tight turns going in and out of the last short side. It’s challenging and there’s definitely something for everyone. Not to mention the fact that it was probably the hottest day of the year out there, so this was no piece of cake.


My goal for the day was top 5. We predicted that Colavita/Baci would work to make sure there was a field sprint for Kelly Benjamin, so the smartest thing we could do was to stay out of trouble and conserve as much energy as possible. I tried to stay tucked in throughout the race and followed wheels that were going in the right direction.

Despite a few attacks and counterattacks, the race did indeed come down to a sprint and I was able to get on the Colavita/Baci train with 2 laps to go. I kept calm and moved up steadily. I was fifth wheel going into the last turn and was able to come around a Colavita/Baci leadout to be 4th heading into the final straightaway. I knew I had to stay on a wheel as long as possible and then try to pop around at the last minute. I stuck on the wheel, but wasn’t able to come around the strong women in front of me. Despite that, it was a great end to a great weekend. Everyone raced really well and more importantly, we had a lot of fun together.

Can’t wait to race with everyone again really soon!