Deep in the heart of Alabama
-by Kim Foland
The last race of the SE Crit series was in Decatur, AL. The course was wide open with a nice uphill drag to the finish. The weather was very hot. Kim and I huddled with some other teams under the bank drive thru downtown near the start finish to ride on our trainers.
We had a great "host" for housing the night before at Lee and David Farabaugh from Team Cycleworks. They live in a great house in Birmingham and cooked up some lovely vanilla lattes,
huevos rancheros and pancakes...spoiled we are.
The day was hot, it was another 70 minute race and even though the course was great, the general tone was "let's get this over with and go home". That was fine with me and Kim because we had a hot BMW X3 to drive home.
The pace of the race was much more relaxed than the other races have been. Attacks were forming and there were primes but the race was much more strategic with the top racers marking each other for the overall series. It gave the opportunity for some other teams to take some chances and get in some breakaways or go for the win. Kim S. worked hard to get herself in a couple of breaks but nothing stuck. With 10 laps to go the winning break formed and stayed away since the top 6 racers were sitting comfortably in the field.
The race wrapped up with Kim S. sprinting for 24th and I secured my spot in the 30's again with 34th. It's over and so is our Spring Crit Campaign which started with the Jax crit and ended with Decatur. Next up, summer campaign starting with Raleigh Twilight.