Dirt Crits kick-off!

It's July and most of you know what that means - Dirt Crit Thursdays!!

Dirt Crit #1 was last night and what an event it was! The turnout was spectacular and the weather was better than anything we usually see here in STL in July.


Lone Wolf Coffee, Alpine Shop, Polk Audio, and O'Fallon Brewery were sponsors of the event and they did not disappoint.

I chose to hop on the 'Pain Train' for the event and race in the 'A' class with the Experts. This meant 40+ minutes at maximum heart rate. I knew it'd be humbling and my only goals were to not get lapped and not get last. However, if either of those happened I was not going to be surprised!


The race started with a crash 40 yards from the start. After getting through the pile-up relatively safe, I found myself in the second pack for the first lap and a half. Then on the second lap there was another pile-up after the creek crossing. I manged to get around that but the group in front had put a gap on me. There was noone in front of me and noone right behind me to work with. I rode the next 4-5 laps doing a solo time-trial. Not fun!! I kept praying for someone to catch me so I could grab a wheel and draft for awhile. It's amazing how much easier drafting came make the dirt crits! I finally caught Matt Grothoff, but he was admittedly spent and fading. That dude is awesome... giving up his single-speed to ride a 30lb hardtail w/gears and was still up towards the front of half the race!


A couple laps later, a guy from the Bike Surgeon team came by me. He was flying and I was unable to hold his wheel. Then Paul Krewet came by and he was obviously not giving it 100% because I was able to grab his wheel. That dude is strong so I was just honored to be sitting on his wheel!



I sat on Paul's wheel for a couple laps including the last lap. As we neared the finish on the last lap I mustered up some energy that I recovered from drafting off Paul to pass him. It was everything I had to do it. I actually had to cut him off a little bit and did apologize after the race, but he was cool with it.


So I wound up 18th out of 33 in my first Expert race and was very pleased with that. I need to avoid the crashes and solo efforts next time and maybe I can improve.









Karen raced the 'B' race and did awesome considering she'd been up since 4am. Worked a 12-hour day and rushed to make the starting line! I love that woman!

Casey raced the 'C' race and gave it 100%. She even did an extra lap for training - although she didn't know it at the time! :)