Stockyards crit

Went out to the stockyards in South St. Paul today for my first stockyards crit. Ironically, I missed last week's race in part because the weather looked nasty when I would have left, and it turned out to be fine. This week, the weather looked fine when I left, and it rained on my race.

The course was basically an inside loop, with the outer traffic lanes open to traffic. It seemed safe enough for the field sizes, and is a good solution for a weekday crit that doesn't involve closing roads completely or mixing it up with completely open roads. Turn three was widened and the finish line was moved out since mayhem at the first one a couple of weeks ago.

Again, especially with the rain, I wanted the hole shot, so I got to the first turn first and made it through without incident. Eventually I settled into the middle-ish. There ended up being a crash in turn three just before a prime due to the rain, just in front of me. It was really slippery out there because the rain had just started coming down, and there was probably plenty of fuel and oil on the road because it's an industrial area. Fortunately I managed to avoid it, but I got gapped and I couldn't (or didn't feel like!) trying to catch back on again. Eventually some other riders who were caught in the crash caught up to me and I rode with them for the rest of the race.

My condolence to the racer in the Cat 5 race who broke his collarbone. I feel for you!

A nice little tune-up before the Capitol Crit.