Day 1, Tulsa Blue Dome Crit

Our home boy Joe Schmalz was off in breaks all night and made the final one when it counted. He was in a 5 rider break that got caught by another group with less than a lap to go. He still sprinted in for 9th place!

Tulsa Tough weekend has begun and it's been pretty interesting to say the least. Just getting to Tulsa was a challenge because of car issues. In fact, I'm sitting at a Firestone store right now while they look at the van again. Yep, instead of getting some sleep I got up at 6:30am to drive to the shop. What started as a dead battery turned into a alternator, then some tires, wheel balance, and alignment. After two days of hiccups, and missteps I got the van back yesterday morning in time to load up the family and hit the road. It seemed all was well until the speedometer hit 50 and the van started shaking. I guess it's pretty bad when Jobro looks up from the back seat and asks me why my hands are shaking so bad! Anyway, we made it to Tulsa in time for my race and the van should be fixed soon.

On to the race! I did the cat1-2 race and lined up with a full field of 150 riders. Since I was running so late I decided that a better start position was help more than a warm up so I rolled around a bit and headed for the line. Ended up on the 2nd row with my teammate Logan just in front of me and Nemo just behind. I'm not sure where Jason was but it didn't take long for him to roll up to the front of the field. Overall the race was pretty smooth and I was able to move around pretty easy within the pack and stay near the front.

Going back to the start, while sitting on the line I was looking at the sky and thinking it  looked like rain off in the distance. I figured, or hoped, that it  would hold off, but near the end of the race what I thought was photographers flashes was actually lightning reflecting off the buildings! With 5 laps to go Jason, Logan, and I were all up near the front of the race when the rain really started. High speeds, dirty roads, and rain are a bad mix and the crashing began. Soon there were bikes and bodies on the ground in every corner and after skating around and I decided it was time to sit up and wait for a better day.

So today is the Brady Village Criterium. It's a L-shaped course with a little bit of a hill in it. I'll start with the Masters race @3:50 and see how I feel. If it goes well I may go out and play with boys in the 1-2 race later in the day @7pm. The Pro-1 men go @ 9pm so it's going to be another late night. If you want to watch it's on Velonews.com.

Hope the van is done soon, I'm starving!