2013 Tacoma Twilight Crit

It's nice knowing days before a crit that you're going to have stellar weather.  We had that rare occurrence in the PNW where the temps made most locals think they were going to melt.   Since Tacoma is a "twilight" crit we weren't racing until the evening so I had to force myself to stay relaxed which isn't an easy thing for me to do.  Watching the Tour and a few naps made for a lazy day.  By the time we left the house around 5:00pm I needed a few slaps in the face to get me going.  Ahhh, now I'm ready.  I was lucky enough to find a parking spot located under a large tree.   Mark and I decided to warm up on the trainer in the shade rather than ride around in the heat.  Blah, blah, blah, lets race!

I like this new course.  I won the Masters race last year with a solo attack with 1 1/2 laps to go.  We had a great crew lined up and I just hoped our team could get a repeat win.  Our plan was to constantly throw guys off the front from the beginning in hope of establishing a break and if nothing else at least we could get other strong sprinters to work hard to bring us back.  If everyone was together near the end we would try to get Mark the win.  Mark was just supposed to sit in but when he heard a Sushi Prime announced he couldn't help himself and blew off the front to take the prize.  Matt and Tom also won primes.  KR basically had the same plan.  Jim mainly sat in while Pruitt, Alec, Randy and company constantly attacked.  Garage and KR were represented in every break. A couple of breaks that  promising but Aaron(Peterson Cycles) and Gary(Tete de la Course) did a lot of work to bring them back.  When the lap board went up we were all together.  The pace increased and we still sent guys up the road but it was evident that it was going to come down to a bunch sprint.  The big sprinters all moved up and Mark was right next to me. 

KR drilled it hard in hopes getting Jim over the  line first.  I think Alec(KR) and Matt got things going on the 2nd to last lap.  Coming into turn three on the last lap Mark blew off my wheel and took a nice, aggressive line through the turn and wound up on the front.  He screamed through turn four and it was time to see if anyone could match his sprint.  Aaron came close but mark held him off.  Matt was able to claim 4th and I crossed the line in 5th.  It was a great team win and I was super happy for Mark.

photo one by Denise Phillips
photo two by Tacoma Bike