Tri-State Velo

Lower Providence, when I write those two words anyone that havs lived in eastern Pa. seem to shudder. I have heard many stories about this crit, some of them date back to the 1980's!!! If any crit is still being raced since the '80s it must be good.

As many of you know this is one rough course. This was my first time racing on this course but I heard that the finish line stretch was recently paved, which is a really good thing if it was anything like the sections between turn 2 and turn 4. The course was you was a rectangle with no large gain in elevation, so that made for a fast race.

Dr. Stansbury, Adrian Gerrits, Mike Koons, Rich Klosinski, Mike Attie, Tucker Brown, and myself all started the race, so needless to say we had a strong team on hand for a race that had some really good riders in it. There were 4 snow valley guys, a strong team from Va., Bobby Lea, and the entire Environmental Alliance teams was also in our presence.

The race started fast and was a very active race, pretty much a break would go off every lap and would be reeled back in, the good thing though is we usually had a guy in every break that went, so that helped us control the race a little bit. Adrian and Mike Koons had done the Cat 3 (with Adrian solo for the last 9 laps and Mike taking 2nd) race before the 1/2/3 race so they worked hard early and just hung on for the finish. Tucker and Mike Attie were constantly in and out of breaks that would roll off the front, so they were a little tired by the end. I didnt see Dr. Stansbury until the last 5 laps, because he hides so well in a pack, I believe he was in the last break of the race, but the pack wasn't going to have anything get away today.

Coming into the last 3 laps the pack was really sketch, people just couldn't hold their lines so the lead into the finish was really scary. On the last lap in turn three Rich was on the front, neal was in about 11th and I was lying about twentieth Tucker and Mike Attie were right behind me until the whole pack almost came to a standstill because everyone was trying to avoid a crash, so they stayed upright and rolled in with the pack and were happy with that. Rich ran out of energy in turn four and also rolled in, but Neal finished ninth and I finished 14th, plus I managed to snag a $10 prime half-way throught the race.

Crits usually aren't my thing but I felt great. I also feel that this team is getting stronger everytime we race together. Keep an eye on us this year, because I feel we will be getting some good results as this season progresses. I would also like to thank the guys and our sponsors, without them I would have no race to write a report about.

Thanks a ton.
Mark Nielson