Grand Rapids Cycling Classic NCC

Grand Rapids, Michigan was home to the National Criterium Calendar Race this weekend.  It was the National Criterium Championships for the pro men, the women had had ours last month.  My race was to end at 3:00pm and the Meshberg Family had a wedding to attend in Southwest Michigan, an hour and a half away from the venue at 4:30pm.

This was my first NCC race after my crash and I felt pretty good in the race!  While I did see the front of the race for a bit I was not in good position when a break of 3 got away, including our current National Criterium Champion Theresa Cliff-Ryan from Team Exergy 2012, Jenn Purcell from Tibco, and Jade Wilcoxen from Optum.  I was bummed to miss this break, as I'm sure everyone else was too.  Tibco and Optum did a great job of disrupting any chase efforts (Theresa was there solo).   In the last third of the race I felt good enough to go for a field prime and got it.  I went a little too hard, and ended up with a huge gap.  Not realizing how big the gap was, I now regret shutting down that effort instead of trying to catch the break.    After I got reabsorbed I rode around with the field for a bit but having a bit of cash in my pocket made me feel complacent.  I wasn't sure how much I would have left or the finish given how much I had expended for the prime so I decided to just throw in the towel, put the bike on the car and do miracles with baby wipes and make up.  

Not bad for not taking a shower!!

Theresa won the race and we made it to a lovely wedding in time to see two really great people get married.