2010 Snowball Crit 1

Posted by Dan on 23. February 2010 06:27

At long last, the starting gun fired on Virginia's racing season with the the Snowball Crit, now in its 11th year. The weather was perfect and anyone that's spent more than 30 minutes on a trainer holed up in a garage (or worse) over the past few months turned out to size up everyone else's motivation or chalk up a mass start enroute to Upgradesville.

The team was represented in both the Cat 5/Jrs and the Cat 3/4 races. Justin, Frank, Steve M and Dan lined up in the C race and had a great run. Despite two crashes in their field, all stayed upright and raced very well. No one got away and Justin landed on the podium in 3rd while Frank crossed the line in 11th place. Fantastic results for all riders.

Wick and I took on the 3/4s. Lots of familiar faces, none of which looked excessively fat and full of residual Christmas cheer, much to my dismay. I was promised bloating and apathy. I got the same level of competition we saw at the Sportsplex last September. Shortly after the start, Wick was off the front with another rider, quite likely of the Fat Frogs persuasion. He was no sooner reeled back in when another break took off, this one comprised of Dominik Meier and Lucas Harville. Too strong to let go, I spent a lot of time trying to bridge up, which I eventually did. We were caught shortly after. Another good chase and a few failed attacks of my own and we were back together, headed for the bunch sprint. Having gambled on a few breaks and lost, I had nothing left for the sprint. I rolled across the line in 13th behind Wick who came in 11th.

We didn't have anyone in the A race, but had to stick around to watch Bill Collins and Mike Stoop deliver an impressive performance as they lapped the 1/2/3 field. They made it look way too easy.

Big thanks to Virginia Beach Velo for putting on the race and the city of Chesapeake for providing the venue and police. While a bit of road work in the far corner done over the next two weeks would be super, we'll be happy if Snowball II is even halfway as good as Snowball I. Ok, maybe 3/4. Or like 7/16. That'd be good.

Video of the Cat 3/4 finish:

We've got a ton of pictures to fix and post uploaded to Flickr. Check back soon