Tour of Lawrence: Day 3 Crit

Yesterday was the final day of the Tour of Lawrence and once again the Mercy crew was looking to get a good result. Our main man for the day was Shadd who is our only true sprinter so the rest of us needed to either go for primes or be ready to help Shadd in the sprint.

As we sat on the line before the start in was pretty hot and with very little wind I knew it was going to be a fast race. From the gun there were attacks and the pace was high as every time a group was pulled back another one would go. About halfway through the race a group of riders got away and it looked to be a pretty serious move. The chase was pretty brutal and for a few laps we were single file and flying. Eventually the group came back and we lined up for the final 10 laps. At this point the Elbowz team lined up at the front and upped the pace stringing out the field. With 5 laps to go the real bump and run started in the field with guys chopping and bumping each other in every turn. I was holding position with Shadd near the front of the field with a lap to go when I got pinched against the curb in a turn and lost a bunch of positions. Ended up sprinting it in with teammate Colton for 21st and 22nd. Shadd had a great race to end up 8th.

Overall it was a good race weekend for the Mercy team with a rider on the podium on Friday, 2 in the top 10 Saturday, 1 in the top 10 Sunday. While we didn't get a win  we executed our game plan every day and got the results we were looking for. Not too shabby for a team in a rebuilding phase. Next week is a bit of a rest week with a possible trip to Omaha for a MTB race and then back to Nebraska for the Omaha Cycling Weekend.