As luck would have it, the race takes place the weekend before we do inventory at work, so I always have to work that Saturday. Fortunately I have an indulgent boss, so last year and this I took an extended lunch break that day and managed to catch an hour or two of the race. It's pretty exciting stuff, though I was so busy taking photos this year that I didn't get fully into it. My pics didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, so I've also borrowed a few from one of my riding buddies, 7rider (Regina Spallone).
This was the only crash I saw this year. The poor dude was near the front of the peloton, so several of the riders behind him clipped him or his bike as they came around the curve. I saw him later walking over to the paramedics and he was just dripping blood down his left side. He got a round of applause from the crowd, though, when he picked himself up and limped off the course carrying his bike:
The one thing that really disappointed me is that I didn't get any good photos of riders from my new team to root for, Team Slipstream (Powered by Chipotle, woo-hoo!). There are some very talented riders on this team, including Brad Huff, who tore up the field for almost all 100 laps of last year's race. And Slipstream's going out of their way to race clean, with a drug-testing program that empasizes maintaining the rider's health along with catching the illegal stuff. Plus, they've got all that cool argyle kit.
Slipstream's gorgeous Felt bikes:
Michael Creed:
(Credit: Regina Spallone)
Regina managed to get a couple of very cool shots of our reigning US Crit champ, Huffy-boy, who wore special red/white/blue argyle to celebrate his recent win:
(Credit: Regina Spallone)
(Credit: Regina Spallone)
Gotta love that mullet!! Next year, I'm going to see if I can finagle that Saturday off and catch the entire race. It's just too freakin' much fun.
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