Tour de Millersburg Criterium

Something different this time around -- a CRIT! We know the promoter, the course, the area (Rick's hometown) and it was a georgous weekend so the racers came out in numbers. Over 200 racers signed up for the 12 mile time trial, the 1.5 mile crit, and the 18-mile road road (totally 96 miles for the Cat 1,2,3 guys). I found it interesting that not 1 person was "local," In fact, the winner of the crit was from Belize! Shane, the promoter, updates his BLOG quite frequently, so read it for his view of the Crit -- he's quite the promoter and really does his selling thing quite well on his blog. The Crit itself - Rick and I never saw one. A roadie Rick works with who has raced crits, used to say to tease Rick "mountain bike racing is boring." When the racers made that first turn in this huge peleton of about 50 riders, and they were all leaning the same way, at the same 30+ mph, yes, there were goosebumps. Holy hell they go fast and stay close together. There was only a couple of minutes that a lead group broke away, but for the most part the group was constantly together. A FAR cry from mountain bike racing. It was the speeds that floored me. I don't really know how fast they were going, but the Porsche pace-car was stepping on it most of the time to stay ahead of them. Rick and I enjoyed watching it and will likely watch again next year. We ran into two locals whom said they would have liked to race the 18-mile road race today, but couldn't because you had to sign up for all three stages. So they would have been our only "local" hope for entry into this race. I'd really like to see a local in it someday - the townies would really enjoy watching locals too. Hmmm.. maybe in the women. ( HA! -gotcha!) Millersburg is a quaint little community that when they hold community events, everyone comes out and enjoys it -- this was no different. The race was well attended, well staffed, and well organized. Kudos to Shane March! I was impressed.