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Mini Classic

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(June 13, 2014) The Colorado Mini Classic was a very successful race for me this year. The Mini Classic is a junior specific 3 stage race contested under omnium rules, with a time trial on Saturday, criterium on Sunday, and a road race on Monday. It is also a part of the USA Cycling Road Development Series bringing competition from around the US. This year, the Monday road race was also used as the 2014 Colorado Junior Road Race State Championship, which put an interesting twist on the racing. In the time trial, I felt that I laid out a good time, although I had some energy left over, but I paced myself well. I ended up 4th, which I was not very happy with, but I was still in contention for the General Classification (GC) (overall race leader for those of you who may not know). Eric finished 6th, putting him not too far out of contention as well.

The criterium the next day was the most crucial race in my opinion, because the win was worth 10 points more than for the time trial, and only 5 points less than for the road race, and in addition, there were 2 points primes (pronounced "preems", a cycling term used to define a sprint in the middle of the race in which the winner recieves a prize such as points in this case). Before the start, I somewhat told Boups (BRAC Executive Director Aaron Bouplon) that I would attack 2 laps in and stay off the whole race. 2 laps in to the crit there wasn't a lot of action, so I decided to put in a little bit of an attack to get things moving and I suddenly had a gap. I pushed on my own and a few laps later, there was a prime lap, so I made sure to secure those points. After this I sat up because I did not want to be on my own the entire race, but then I was caught by Colby Lange who was 3rd in the time trial and had attacked off of the group. We worked together for most of the race to hold off the rest of the group, besides on the next prime lap which I was able to win, and the last two laps. I was forced into the front on the last lap, and Colby had the advantage. However, with about a quarter of a lap to go, I put in a hard surge to the finish and was able to hold off Colby by about a wheel. Eric was able to win out of the bunch and take 3rd place. After the criterium, I was leading the GC by 3 points over Colby, and 12 points over my next opponent Evan Clouse. Eric was just 3 points behind him in 4th.

The final stage road race put quite a bit of pressure on both Eric and I. We were working to preserve my lead in the GC, and hopefully move him past Evan into 3rd, along with trying to win the State Championship. We both made many little attacks to try to wear down on the group, but nobody really wanted to do anything, so it was a long race. We became somewhat fed up with the rest of the group because nobody wanted to pull or make any work happen, so the race was somewhat uneventful. Eric and I decided that we would attack on the second to last hill and try to time trial down the hill to the finish and hopefully beat out the other racers, but we both ended up boxed in when it was time to make our move, and it did not work very well. Maxl Freeman ended up taking the win on the day, with Colby finishing 4th, and me 5th, which was enough to preserve my lead by just one point. Eric, not being a sprinter type, ended up 7th, causing him to drop back to 7th on GC. I was very happy, and although I think Eric was a little bit bummed on dropping back to 7th, I think he was happy that we got the win. As always, thank you to my parents, my sponsors, and everyone who makes this possible.

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