Texas Age Based State Crit Championships, Tristan takes second!

Fastest Stache in Texas!

With 2016 being my 10^th season it is also the first time I am racing outside of the u23 ranks, which meant my new age group is the 23-29 year olds. Although a bit older, it is great to see how long I have kept up with the sport. Sadly, I know more riders that started out as Jr’s and quite before getting past their u23s then riders that have kept it going. This sport has greatly shaped who I am as a person as well as the direction my life has taken with my friends, school and experiences.

The course for the age based state road race looked super fun! It involved sprinting back and forth over an overpass, which reminded me of how half of my Belgium Kermesses were back in 2014. The start of the race was fast as many teams were eager to try to launch guys on the overpass during the opening laps. Including my favorite start line sprinter Grant “the flow” Koontz. As the race started to pick up momentum the field quickly started to thin out as many racers who started the day did not expect a blood bath from lap 1.

Tristan and I made sure to stay close to each other and use each other to try to get us into what could be a promising move to get a result. However, as the laps started to tick down it was becoming more and more obvious that it was going to be a sprint to get the result.

As I started to position myself near the front to prepare to try to help Tristan get a result in the sprint I looked up and saw a very fast looking Kevin Girkins start to accelerate up the overpass just a few meters infront. He was using the gap he got from an earlier prime to launch himself up the road. As I started to get near the front to try to bring him back, I heard the terrible sound of a front tubular flatting as I hit a bad crack in the road in one of the few turns on course. I quickly regained my balance and started riding fast back to the pit to try to get my freelap. However since there was only 3 laps to go, the free laps were over and I was on my own chasing the group. I gave it one hard dig for half a lap to try to get back on, but the peloton was already half a lap up by then. At this point I went into cooldown mode and started to head towards the finish line to see how Tristan was going to fair in the bunch finish.

I was able to get to the finish just in the nick of time to see Tristan win an impressive field sprint out of the bunch. Unfortunately, Girkings was never caught and took the win of the day! With the next day being the big event of the weekend I was happy with the way the legs were feeling as well as seeing how well Tristan is riding.