Land Park Criterium

Team: Jennifer, Holly, Josie Morgan

Strategy: Work on individual positioning in the pack, go with or initiate breaks if we felt it, otherwise try to maintain a good position out of the brutal wind, and finish strongly.

Other players: Hopkins Honda/Code 3 (5 racers), Vanderkitten (5 racers), Metromint (2), Wells Fargo (4 or 5), Velo Bella (2), Proman (2), various others for a total of 35 starters.

Mission accomplished! All of us had an excellent, safe race. The three of us were in the top 20, with Holly as the top finisher in 6th place.

Several breaks were initiated during the race, with either Jennifer or Holly taking part in them (mostly Jennifer), but nothing really lasted longer than a lap. Not sure if the wind was a factor or what the deal was, but it's such a shame to waste all that energy to get yourself into a break and then have it go: pffffffft. It was just too windy for any one individual to try to TT, so the last short-lived break came back, setting us up for a field sprint into a brutal headwind. Excellent! The entire group moved to the right of the course on the final stretch and Holly put herself into the headwind to move up on the bumpiest part of the course, and was able to pass everyone except for the five duking it out for the win.

After the race, the skies opened up and it poured for about 5 minutes, giving the ground a good soaking, but sparing us from having to race in it!

Till next time -

Holly