Savage Hill Stage Race - Bremen Criterium

Ryan's fingerprints were all over this course. 80% brick, narrow streets, a little rise that just sucked the speed out. It took quite a while to get settled.

I didn't contest the sprint primes because there was a whole weekend of racing left. I set up poorly for the last lap. I was probably 25 back when I saw 3 green jerseys up front setting pace. I though I was out of it for sure, but they didn't maintain their pace up the little rise. That allowed me to move up and take a great line through the last corner. I crossed the line 2nd, but I found out later that two guys were off the front so I really only had 4th place. I was so preoccupied with negotiating the course I didn't even realize what was really going on.

As much as I looked forward to racing in my hometown, this course was challenging and wore me out just being bounced around so much on the bricks. But I think it is an excellent course and fits well with the road stages, given that the crit course was tight,narrow in spots and fast in others. My strategy today was to wait patiently for the end, try to stay near the front at all times and stay out of trouble, particularly in the corners on the bricks. There was a team leading out their teammate on the back stretch that helped me get into postion, but by the time we got into the final straight, I was doing well to keep up. I was still able to accelerate but not the way I would like, not to mention trying to sprint while dodging bumps/dips of all sorts in the process. I would have loved to have place higher, but I placed 9th and I am quite happy with that.

After what I did to myself at TTAB two weeks ago, I made a serious effort to rest and try to get my form going again for the Savage Hill Stage Race. I was hoping a few easy weeks would do the trick. But I could already tell during warm up on the crit course that my legs were not %100. My legs just didn't have the snap that you feel when you're fresh. Hopefully I'm just a little stale and I can work back into form during the 3 days of racing.

The crit didn't feel to bad. But even so, my legs were having none of it. The jumps out of the corners got to me pretty quickly and after only 10 minutes or so I found myself off the back working with one other guy.