Williams Crit

On Saturday night I went up to Williams College, home to plenty of bad memories, to visit my friend G.P. and prepare for Sunday morning's Williams College Criterium. It was, in addition to the race, a weekend of good food: on Saturday night we ate at the Thai restaurant in downtown Williamstown, and I had something that had mango, chicken, shrimp and veggies in it, and it was delicious.

[This is where I realize that this blog isn't that interesting without photos]

We woke up on Sunday morning and hit up a little coffee shop for a bagel and a muffin, pre-race. Good stuff.

I had decided that I wanted to be very aggressive in this race, especially after the frustration of the last criterium that I had done. As the race started, I found my way toward the front, which wasn't too hard if I worked a lot on the long, sloping uphill.

About halfway through the race, I went up the hill a little harder than I had been as I stuck to the wheel of the guy in front of me. All of a sudden, the guy behind me started yelling about making a break, since we had about 20 yards on the rest of the field. He shot forward, and I followed him, and the two of us were off the front.

I chased him for a while, and pulled a little, but I didn't have the legs to stick it out, and I lost him with about 5 laps to go. I dropped back and found another guy, and the two of us worked together for another couple laps. Before I knew it, I heard the bell, and I was on the last lap.

I didn't feel that good yesterday, so I couldn't stay with that guy, either. He left me behind, and I ended up fourth behind him, the other guy who started that break (he ended up winning), and a guy who went off the front at the very beginning and only got caught with a lap to go.

I was thrilled to get 4th place (results here), especially since I didn't feel that great. I won a saddle [I should have another picture here] and it constitutes the first thing I've ever won from biking.

Yehaw!