Podium at Day 2 of the Battle of San Jacinto Criterium. 3rd Place!

3rd's the word

With Grant’s long flowing hair in my passenger seat, I knew I had the good luck charm I needed to get a better result at the second day of racing around the San Jacinto Monument. The two of us made sure to get some good breakfast tacos in before we drove through Houston’s energy district to the monument. With the second day of racing we were lucky to avoid the nasty storms that came in and became a factor for the early races that began before I left my bed.

The race for today had a lot of the similar starters from yesterday. Although the field was a bit smaller I knew who I needed to watch to get a result. This time however, the rest of GIANT racing went back home to the traffic and hoppy beer of Austin and I was flying solo for the races.

The race started off quick as usual and I tried to sit in the pack a bit more than the day before. Quickly some attacks started to go up the road. I was not warmed up and I was flirting with danger, waiting for someone else to pick up the slack. Luckily the field was hungry to chase the early moves and no one was sneaking away early in the race. I found myself gravitating close to Grant as he is never shy to let his legs do the talking. It’s always tough following Grant, you’re always trying to find a compromise between breathing through your nose or getting a mouthful of hair off the back of his head.

Before long the attacks were starting to break the field apart and I found myself in a move that had roughly 9 riders with some more riders stuck in the gap trying to get across. Since I was flying solo I had no need to drive it and I was taking short, but intense pulls to try to get the group motivated to work. Riders were starting to play games early in the break and were trying to skip pulls and gaps were quickly starting to open. I rode attentive at the front of the break, not worried to accelerate hard with the attacks to put the riders opening gaps in difficulty.

Once the dust settled there were 4 left

As the laps started to go by, our break of 9 started to go down and about 25 minutes into the race we were down to just 4 riders. At this point 100 percent of the break was doing work and the attacks stopped as we got into a smooth but hard paceline. As the time gapped opened, we knew we were staying away. However we kept the pace hard and no one was really skipping out on their pulls.

The final lap I took a pull early and went to the back to anticipate the sprint, I knew that the best bet would be first wheel into the last corner would get the result. As we started to slow down going into the final half lap we were all eyeing each other waiting to see who was going to make the first move. I was sitting third wheel and was liking my chances.

Before I can start my jump, Corey of Cadence jumped hard from 4^th wheel and got the gap. I did not hesitate and jumped after him. Despite thinking that he started the sprint too early he was holding the gap. I closed the gap down a bit before Grant came hard on my inside before the final turn. I grabbed his wheel thinking I could come back around, but the twisty finish made it tough to do so. Corey stayed away for the win, Grant second, and I rounded off the podium in 3^rd.

With the 3^rd place, I feel like I made up a bit for my sprint yesterday. Although the top step of the podium is always the ideal spot, any podium is good podium! Since my semester ended this, would be the second time I made the podium in just as many weekends. A good sign that the late start to my season means that I should only be getting better and better as I get closer to my summer race goals.

Next races on the calendar are going to be the Memorial Weekend races up in the Dallas area. Looking forward to more hard crit races!

Thank you Alex of Local Racing for putting on great events for Houston racers to compete at!