San Diego Omnium DayIII- Crit

Going into the crit, I was in 10th on G.C., with hopes of moving up. There were two sprint laps with 5,3,2,1 points up for grabs for the first 4 riders, and then the finish where the points went ~15 deep or so, and started at about 25 I think.

I hatched a plan with the guy who won the road race to try and take a flyer after one of the sprint laps to catch people off guard, and hope that no team was around in enough numbers to bring a concerted effort back. It probably would have worked.

The first sprint lap came, and Ted and Jon lead me out well, but maybe a tad early- I tried to jump and get around to the points, and got up there for 3rd, so 2 points in the bag. Jon then stayed off the front for a while, and Ted managed to slow the field down for a few laps while I just tried to stay out of the wind and recover as much as I could.

Second sprint lap comes up, and we get the leadout much better- I ended up 2nd without too much effort, and shortly thereafter Steve takes off for our planned break. A few other guys are with us, which is allright, and we all pull through once. At this point I just sprinted and am now trying to drive a break... fucking DEAD. After pulling through once I barely get back on, and then loose them through the start/finish. I claw my best back to them, but it's not happening. They build up a good lead, blowing guys out the back... finally just Steve and another dude who couldn't help him pull anymore, and it comes back together. I really think had I been able to stay up there and recover in the break for a second, then help drive it, we could stayed away... but oh well.

Finish comes around and I find the trusty wheel of Ted, but we're a bit too far back, and he doesn't quite have it to punch us both out through the wind back to the front of the field. We needed an Ernie. I was pretty tanked as well at this point, and even with a perfect lead out, I would have just been holding on for dear life. So no points in the finish... bummer.

To my surprise this mediocre result in the crit was still good enough to move me up to 8th overall. I mainly have Ted and Jon to thank for that for drilling it going into those prime laps, and for helping to control the race. I'll have to return the favor at some point and see if I can't play lead out man next time...