After a lot of food and a good night’s sleep last night, I think we felt much better today. We also had more time to recover since Heather’s crit wasn’t until noon and Ted and I went off at 1:45 PM. In the morning we hung out at the house and Drew showed us how to “rope”. Drew is one of the sons of the host family and he competes in rodeos. It was really cool watching him practice on the makeshift steer. He tried to show the three of us how to do it but only Heather seemed to have the knack…must be the Brian blood in her!

Then we headed to downtown Walla Walla where the criterium was. Heather got a good warm-up and then had fun during her race. She went for a lot of the primes and I think got each one. Kele got off early and won some solo. Kele ended up lapping the field, which was very impressive, but Heather didn’t mind since there was no way she’d overtake her in GC. Kele was sitting in first and Heather in second. It was fun watching Heather race. The weather was perfect and there were quite a few people spectating.

Ted and I warmed up on the trainers and we both admitted that our legs felt fried. Hopefully, we’d be able to muster up enough energy to finish the criterium. I was sitting in 15th overall and that was the last of the prize payout — $10.00! The race started fairly fast, but then things eased up a bit. The course was bumpier than I remember, and I even had my chain come off my big-ring a couple times.

I stayed at the back, using my open-a-gap-then-close-it-in-the-corner technique. It worked OK, but on one stretch, there didn’t seem to be much of a draft and I always had to push it there. Otherwise, it was pretty easy to stay at the back of the pack. Ted was always riding mid-pack and seemed to be doing well there. At one point the pack slowed on the backstretch and I decided to give it a go. I stood up and sprinted and then came through the start/finish stretch in front. I figured the daughter and son-in-law of our host family was there watching might as well give them a show! As I went across the line, they rang a bell for a $35 prime. Oh no…it’s like déjà vu! Didn’t this happen to me in the 2005 Twilight Criterium?

This time, I kept working it, but on the backstretch, my legs were giving out on me. I looked back and realized they were gaining quickly enough that even if I gave it 100%, I’d still get caught. So I eased up and tried to reintegrate with the front of the pack, but they were going by too fast. I ended up in about 10th spot by the time I got up to speed. Ted was 3rd or 4th wheel, so he had a shot at the money. But Ted said he got cut off in the last corner and had to brake, so he ended up 5th for the prime. Oh well.

From that point, I was just in survival mode again. Hanging out at the back. I did try to sprint for the finish, just to see what kind of wattage I could put out, but it was a feeble sprint. So no new CPs today! It was still a good race, I held onto my 15th overall, and Heather made some pretty good dough with all the primes and second overall. Now it’s time to recover!