Whitney's Double-Podium at CSU Circuit & Crit

Howdy there! This past weekend was CSU's Race Weekend and, boy, it was a great but insanely busy one! In addition to racing, I was out volunteering with the CSU team from before sunrise and through the race day, taking a break to race. CSU put on such a great event and were able to make some good money for Collegiate Nationals in a couple of weeks! Woohoo!

Saturday was the Cobb Lake Circuit Race held a bit northeast of Fort Collins.  The weather was a bit chillier in the 60s with icy winds. The course was sweet: a 6-mile loop that started on top of a big hill, followed by a windy descent through the neighborhood, onto a flat tailwind section, then a few miles through some hard-packed dirt, and up the mile-long finishing climb. Our field was a bit dismal with the holiday weekend so we were thrown in with the Men's 3's. One of the officials told the women that none of us would be able to keep up with the men so we might as well have fun while we could. I reluctantly held my tongue and took it as a challenge. And keep up I did. The race ended up being last-women-standing, so I won by default. I was way more pumped though that I was able to not only stay with the men through the race, but be active and be one of the last 10 standing. Lady power, hi-yah!

A Happy Whitney Post-Circuit Race

Sunday was the infamous CSU Oval Criterium on campus. Unfortunately, this race was on Easter, so once again, the fields were smaller than usual (Side note: I hope CSU gets a better weekend next year!). There were only 6 women starters for our 70-something-degree, 4pm race. The course was a 7-turn course with a big lap around The Oval. I think aggressive racing is way more fun than timid racing, so I opted for a hard counter of a Rio Grande Lady who went for a prime and caused a two-lady break of Gwen from Kenda and I (after winning the prime). I was pretty tired from the weekend and being atrociously sick the week before and opted for a "throw-all-my-eggs-in-one-basket" approach to the finish: I attacked Gwen 100% with 2 to go. Unfortunately, it wasn't my day to shine and I was caught and couldn't catch her on the counter. I was second for the day. Thanks to CSU too for equal payout across top-categories!

In the break with Gwen from Kenda Sunday

Overall I was very happy with the weekend. This next weekend has promising turnout! Denver Federal Center Classic (a crit) on Saturday and The Air Force Road Race on Sunday. The road race is actually on an old Olympic Trials course and it's fun! On a side note, I've been having a great time running some crit clinics with the CSU women. It's been really fun watching them improve and watching them get more and more excited about racing each weekend.