US Pro Criterium Championship

by Tim Henry
8-17-2003 Downers Grove, Illnois is a chic town outside of Chicago. Getting  there from my house involves 12 hours in the car but fortunately my father went  with me so I did not have to drive. We left Thursday morning and drove to  New Albany, Indiana to visit my grandmother. We spent the night there and  then were off to Meryllville, Indiana. This town is about an hour from  Downers Grove but still outside Chicago. We wanted to avoid Friday afternoon rush hour and my race Saturday was not until 6:00 so there was no  rush to get there. The special thing about this weekend is that it is my  21st birthday. My birthday was the 16th, which was Saturday. I decided to go to Hooters right down the street at midnight on Friday. The Hooters girls made me stand on a chair and shake my butt while they sang a song and at the end they all slapped my butt and it was fun. So after a few beers it was off to bed. Saturday morning we drove to the race and hung out all day. Saturdays race is just a Pro-Am race while Sunday is the National Championship races. I watched the some friends race in the Masters race 
and the Women's race before getting dressed. Robbie and I were the only riders from our team racing this race. Downers Grove is an exciting, albeit dangerous, course. It is a figure eight shape with eight turns and is 1.2 miles long. There is a gradual hill the whole front side of the course that kicks up to the third and fourth turns, where you then bomb downhill through the last four turns at high speed. I had a bad start to this race and it took me about twenty minutes to get to the front. I was then active off the front and felt really good. Nothing ever really got going and with two to go there was a crash right in front of me so I decided to bail out before I made my 21st birthday a bad day. That night I went to a neat Italian restaurant with some friends and had some more drinks. The next day we got up in time to see the Women's race and the Elite men's race. The Elite race was interesting because I knew a lot more riders in that race than I did in my race later that day. I almost felt like I belonged in the Elite race but that feeling was a little too late as I'm already a pro. So about an hour 
before our race the team met up to discuss strategy. The plan was to try and get in a breakaway since we did not have the horsepower to form a leadout train like the bigger squads. The only problem with that plan is that this race almost always finishes in a field sprint. Our plan B then was to have Pat O'Donnel, our awesome sprinter, sit in and wait for a sprint finish. This race was 100k, 62 laps, so it was very long for a crit. I had a good start this time and was in the top twenty for the first 
ten laps. I was feeling so good I even put in an attack. This was more for effect as it was placed right in front of my friends, family, and team manager. I was quickly caught but still had my glory. Later on in the race Scottie attacked and was off the front solo for three laps. He eventually sat up because he was not going to stay out there for another 30 laps like that. A few laps later my teammate Paul Martin got in a three man move that lasted five or six laps. Finally the laps started to wind down. With ten to go I was sitting in a decent spot. I was in the top thirty but not in the spot everyone wanted to be so I did not have to constantly fight to stay in that position. With eight or nine to go a Colavita rider took turn five really wide and just slid out. It sounded nasty but I just told myself not to look back and concentrate on the race. Then with five to go I held my breath through the same turn because last year there was a huge pileup in that turn on that lap. We made it through the turn safe and sound and I loosened up a little. That is, until I realized that I was at the US Pro Crit Championships on an eight turn course with five laps to go and that it was only going to get more dangerous. Bumping and pushing aside, the next few laps were incident free. Coming out of the last turn right before we started the final lap, a rider seemed to go straight instead of turning and took several others into the barricade. I slammed on my brakes and avoided the incident but was gapped off the wheel in front of me. With only one mile to go I just put everything I had into the pedals and came in for a satisfying 30th place. This was a good weekend for me and definitely something to be happy with. I feel stronger every week and really look forward to my next chance to race. My next event will be the US 100k weekend with a Crit and RR in Columbus, Georgia and the US 100k Monday morning in Marietta. The 100k was my breakthrough ride last year where I placed 5th and was first amateur. I was in a breakaway with guys like Gord Fraser, Alex Candelario, and Chad Gerlach. We will see what happens this year because I have team leaders to work for now. 

Thanks for reading, Tim