Top 10 in a P-1-2

Two good things actually happened on Sunday. Well make that 3 I forgot the sun came out and heated it up really nice and warm. Did the 75 minute Pro-1-2 crit at the CSU Oval. Wasn't sure if I had enough to last through this but I didn't feel like driving all the way to Boulder in the morning for Stazio. At the start there must have been 15 Rio Grande riders, a group of Mob/Einstiens, and a few Hart guys. OOh boy is this going to be fun. At least there were a few of us veterans, one guy was even asking for the "kind gesture" of a head start for us. Not happening. Typical crit start, blistering for the first 5 minutes in which a good size group got off the front. It was represented by all the strong teams mentioned above and then some. I was jsut content to sit in and follow the accelerations over the next. I was told we were dropping riders every lap so that made me feel good. It's a fast course and 30 minutes in the break was waaay up the road. That didn't stop people from trying to go off the front only to be caught and sometimes shelled out the back. I found myself riding next to Forrest Newman from Spike most of the race. He had a cheering section all around the course. I kept hearing "go Forrest" but in my mind I changed it to "ride Forrest ride" and had a good chuckle. With 15 minutes to go we had closed the break down to less than a minute and were gaining on them. They were self imploding, heard from one of the riders they dropped that they were'nt working together. For some reason I didn't try to move closer to the front on the last lap. It was probably the pace, which after easing up with 2 to go was now in full tilt. I hung in there and when it swung onto the Oval, we caught and passed the break. With no sprint in my legs I just motored in a big gear passing riders up to the line. I'll say it was 10th place but it could have been 9th as I finished right on the wheel of an AF Academy rider that finished 8th per the Officials. I think they misread my number as they had no camera and put down rider 345 in 9th and my number was 348. Seeing as they didn't show 10th I'll take it as there might have been a rider that edged me at the line. Doesn't matter though because I had a great race. On the drive home the next best thing was hearing that my Kings beat the Suns 107-100. Whoo-Hoo, playoff hopes are still alive.