Air Force Cycling Classic Crystal City Crit -- Jake's first Cat 3 crit; Final Regular Season Babe Ruth Game

Sunday June 10 -- just 11 days before Junior Nationals, Jake lined up for his first Cat 3 race today at the Air Force Cycling Classic Crystal Cup (aka the Crystal City criterium).  It's a tough, technical 6 corner criterium with a long flat drag to the finish line.

Jake was joined by his HPC teammates Avery Wilson and Matt Amman.  Coppi was represented by David Wilson (who has been tearing it up) and Kosta Tombras.  Bike Doctor Waldorf and DC Velo both had big teams.  Jake was not intimidated.

Before Jake's race, we chatted with Andy Guptil of Miller School who was acting as director for his former pro team Jamis/Sutter Home.  Andy introduced us to the guys right after the Pro men's race.
We also go to talk with my PT, Sonja Evers, who I hadn't seen in a while as she was waiting to do the Pro Women's race.

It was damn hot, in the 90s, so Jake warmed up on the trainer in the parking garage.  But it was still so hot that we covered his back with ice packs and I fanned him with a Kenda catalog that was laying in the back of the car.

Then he lined up with 50 or 60 local Cat 3 crit monkeys.  According to Jake's Garmin, the temps during the race averaged in the 105 degrees range!!

someone needs to be more aggressive in the scrum

And they were off and I started my nervous walking and random video taking. Here's the start

Jake was well positioned mid pack most of the time (I had trouble spotting him sometimes). Here he is with Avery.

There were a lot of guys popped off the back. 3-ish laps to go.

Here's one lap to go and I'm getting nervous.

Here's the bunch sprint.  Chaos

Jake did great to finish in the much diminished front pack.  He was 22nd.  Poor Matt has been sick and had to pull out early.  Not sure what happened to Avery, he made an attack on one lap which may have gassed him.  Jake admitted that it was very hard, and that he was spun out in his junior gears.

In the Cat 4 race, Luke was hanging in pretty well until he started to cramp, but it was a good step forward.

Jake was somewhat disappointed (he's used to being at the very front), but doesn't seem to really appreciate what a significant accomplishment finishing that well is for a 14 year old in his first Cat 3 race.  It was a rude race for the first Cat 3.  But Sue and Pierre and I are now positive that Jake has the legs and race sense to do well at Nationals and really be a solid teammate for Shane, who has the ability to win the 15-16 races.  The countdown is on

On SATURDAY we had our final regular season baseball game.  Regular head coach Bill Porter was out leaving me in charge with Matt Carlson as assistant.  We only had 9 players.  Liam had a good game at the plate. I had him move a little closer to cover the outside of the plate and he started making solid contact, driving one up the middle and then ripping a triple down the third base line.  He made an unfortunate error at shortstop.  But we won, securing our 3rd place standing for the playoffs this week.