Alsatian Omnium Day 1 Criterium

After having a good recovery and lunch after the Time Trial, I was ready to rock out the Criterium that evening.

Criterium:

We started with about 77 racers and the course isn't that wide, so that made for hard moves on the outside of the pack. We had 3 corners total, one of those corners was a long sweeping corner to the finish.

The race started off at a decent pace, Kremke tried to get away with Patrick McCarty, yes, 'the Patrick McCarty from Ouch Maxxis' Pro Domestic Team, the team with Floyd Landis. He wasn't as strong as I thought he would be =P. Attacks went off here and there like usual, but nothing was going to stay away. I played it smart and tried not to do much work. 5 laps to go there were 4 guys off the front, Dave Rendon went off the front with 3 laps to go. The Bell lap....

The Bell Lap:

After the 2nd turn, Travis Burandt, tapped me to get on his wheel...He ramped it up to 35mph going down the back stretch! about 25 metres from the sweeping corner he wanted to pull off, I yelled at him to keep pulling to the corner! We go to the corner and Travis swung wide and swooped in behind me to slow up the riders behind me...

I sprinted out of the corner as hard as I could and rode away to my first victory in the Pro/1/2 race!!! I won by about 5 bike links and even had to time look back and celebrate before the finish line!!

Thanks again Travis! You are the man of ALL LEAD OUTS!!

Rest up, Road Race was the following morning...76 miles of brutal winds.