For Heather, this would be her second criterium of the Tour, but for me, it was the first. This course is a lot nicer than the one Heather did in Provo on Thursday night. It made use of the Thanksgiving Point parking lot for half the course, then made its way out to a couple really smooth roads with a slight downhill by the start/finish line. I’m not particularly fond of parking lot crit courses, but this one was great! Heather had a decent race and had to deal with some women that didn’t understand stage racing tactics. But she was entertained by the antics during the race. I didn’t get to watch much of her race because I had to warm up for my event.

My race went better than I expected. I hammered from the gun to start things off. I felt better than I expected but not dominant, so I had to play off of other people’s attacks. As we were coming into only a few laps to go, things got really strung out. There were a couple people off the front and I felt decent. I wasn’t sure if we would catch, but I could still possibly get a podium spot. Then coming into the last corner, I thought I wouldn’t have enough punch to sprint for third, so I let a guy come around me. Then I stood up and started sprinting. I was surprised to find that I had pretty good speed and was gaining on him! But I didn’t have enough road to overtake him and ended up 4th. I guess I should have given it 100%, even though I was disappointed with my sprints during this morning’s stage.

A friend of ours from my Intel days, Merle came out to watch. He brought his kids who were excited to watch us race. Another couple from our old neighborhood in Pleasant Grove also came out to watch. It was nice to see familiar faces.