Niwot Crit - Down goes Fraser

I had some bad karma today. On the way to the race I hit a prairie dog with my car, and I stepped in some dog poo when I was walking to the registration desk. Maybe I should have turned around and gone home. :)

I didn't start well, but I stuck in the middle of the pack. It was a really tight course so passing people was difficult. The further back you are in the pack, the harder it is because you have to sprint out of each corner just to keep up with the front of the race. There were a couple of long straight sections where I was able to pass some people, but I never had the gas to really get up to the front.

I found myself taking some dumb lines through corners just because I was following the wheel in front of me. Eventually I got my head on straight and started taking better lines through the corners. I was pleased with how my confidence through the corners was improving. I haven't raced a crit in well over a month, so it took me some time to get my "crit head" back.

About 3/4 of the way through the race, the pace really slowed. We were taking the corners at an unreasonably slow pace. I decided to try and move up on the inside of one of the tight corners, and it didn't go well. The decision to move up was sound, but I foolishly tried to pedal through the corner and ended up clipping my pedal on the pavement. Total bummer. I went down, but not too hard. The bike is fine, and I have a few scrapes. I'll live to race another day (probably July 20th) at another crit.