Of all the races on our schedule this year I’ve been most looking forward to the AT&T crit in my hometown of Austin, Tx, probably even more so than Philly, for sentimental reasons. I grew up in the small Austin area town of Leander and even though I have not resided in Texas since I was 20 I still have a deep seated love for the Lone Star state. Don’t get me wrong, Philly was overwhelmingly cool and really drove home in my mind how much I’ve grown (with still a loooong way to go), in the two years I’ve been doing this. If I turn my mind’s eye to analyze the landscape behind me it’s still a vision that leaves me excited and amazed. In the two years prior to this one I think I raced a total of 4 or 5 NRC races and the grand total of races in those years probably barely surpasses the total amount of races I’ve lined up in this year. Plus I’ve got teammates for the first time ever!
OK, back on track- Austin. This was the 4th stop in the USA Crit series in which Vanderkitten after the first 3 stops was in 1st place team standing and my crazy tough teammate, Jen “Wheels” Wilson was in second place overall behind Kelly Benjamin. There would only be 3 of us participating, myself, Leigh Hopkins (used to be Valletti) and Jen, as injuries and other circumstances have depleted our roster somewhat. My confidant/mental therapist, Mark Zefeldt who also happens to be our team owner/manager/Mr. Do It All was also in attendance and along with my parents who flew in from FL. Mark and I arrived Friday around noon and hightailed it straight to Chuy’s for some proper Tex-Mex and margarita(s). OK, trip is starting off on the good foot!
The ceiling of Chuy’s is covered in hubcaps!
After lunch we headed to the hotel and I went for a quick spin followed by dinner with 2 of my best friends from childhood, Angie & Brett and his pack of pretty boys, Witlo and Patrick. Hilarity ensued, time went way too fast, but we had to leave around 9 to pick up Wheels from the airport. See you tomorrow night boys!
The next morning we got up around 9 and got ready to ride. We had to pick our race reg up at the Mellow Johnny bike shop where we met up with Brad Huff and a few of his mates for a quick spin in which we got lost, had fun, talked a bit (a lot) of shit, got lost again, almost boiled to death in the heat and then finally made it home 2 hrs later… Ok, a little longer than we would have liked but fun all the same.
Lunch time. Three words. The Salt Lick. Look it up if you are in town, best BBQ EVER! Just for the record, none of this trip is typical race behavior for the team but in Austin you make exceptions. There are just too many wonderful things to ingest and imbibe to stay on the “straight and narrow.”
Meat!
Race time. 4 corner crit which on paper seems pretty straightforward but as my dad pointed out, these roads have probably not been repaved in over 20 years. There were GIANT holes and deep grooves which can really only be described as asphalt waves. I wish I had a surf board rather than a bike! EY EY EY!
I’m not really one to complain about the course, in my opinion bike racing is hard, it is dangerous and it should remain so. But there is a line that needs to be drawn and I feel like this course possibly crossed it in some areas… I don’t want to discourage the promoters to hold the race again as there were TONS of spectators and everyone was having a great time but perhaps a little TLC can be shown to the the course prior to next year?
The week and half since Philly had been a little bit of a holiday for the most part so I was curious to see how the legs would be. Happily they were fresh and ready to go after the first lap, we all looked pretty good in fact. Nice! About 30 min in there was a crash coming into the last turn that took around 8 girls out. Jen had been 2 people ahead of me and ended up on the ground along with myself on top of eventual winner Kelly Benjamin. My shoe was totally ripped off, had some good road rash on the thighs and other areas but managed to get back up and into the race. Sadly one of the Metro girls was not so lucky and was out with the collarbone done in.
I ended up running on adrenaline for most of the rest of the race but 4 laps to go the thigh started to cramp pretty nicely so all I ended up managing was 15th. Not what I was hoping for. Wheels was in about the same position and ran 13th and Leigh by a crappy ruling was placed in last even though she finished 17th. She had a great race and worked hard for us but the officials, in all our opinions, made a bad call when she had to come into the pit for a mechanical issue that they deemed not worthy of a freelap… What can you do?
All in all I had a wonderful time being back home and can’t wait for next year, new course or not!
Lizzer!
