Celebrity Classic

Saturday was the first of two days of crits in downtown Van Buren, AR. The course was a large "L" shape. I will give you the race stories in the order for which they occurred.
We arrived to the race course about 1.5hrs prior to the start of our race. I had ridden down from the hotel earlier in the day to spin out my legs and see the course at the same time. Shannon was in the midst of her race not to mention she just about to lap the field when I arrived. I did not get a chance to see her breakaway catch the field but I heard it on the speaks a block away, I thought to myself, that has got to be an awsome feeling. She ended up finishing 3rd on the day.
Now for the guys race. The clouds were looming while we were warming up. I did not think too much of this because there have been plenty of training days where the clouds showed up yet the rain never fell. We rode the course a few times before the race was officially stages.
The pace was quick from the gun and I was able to get towards the front from the gun. After about 20 minutes or so of the 90 minute race it began to rain and a large number a racers began to exit due to the speed and the wet roads. I got a message from Nathan over the radio to just take my own line and sit on the back, because the race was not a priority. This is exactly what I did, then when we came to the front side straight with about 35 minutes left the group bunched up and I kept rolling along with three other guys and then I put the hammer down and got our break off. I know I was supposed to sit on the back but I wanted to race. This four man break was sticking then a small group bridged up to us and we were now about 8 strong. Coming into the final straight my whole bike slid to one side due to the wet road so I decided since I wanted to be upright across the line I would not contest the sprint and take my top 20 placing.
When the day was said and done I was happy with my racing.

Check back for the second day of the Celebrity Classic