This past Saturday Chris and I represented the Panther / Competitive Cyclist squad in the Meijer Grand Classic NRC crit in Grand Rapids. This race seems to change courses every year, but it always features a few brick sections, which make it hard and keep things interesting. It has always been one of my favorite crit races ever since it’s first edition in 2007.  A small (for an NRC race) but very strong field lined up, with the Bissel Pro squad, whose sponsor is based in Grand Rapids, being the team to watch. They brought so many riders that one of them had to sit out as they were over the limit for number of riders allowed to enter a race.  The race started off fast and was basically full gas all the time. About halfway through I attacked, got a decent gap, and Bissel rider bridged up just as I was realizing that my rear tire was flat. I went to the pits to get a wheel and was unfortunately put back into the field instead of back off the front. A few laps later I attacked again and bridged up to the lone Bissel rider, taking one of his teammates with me. Not long after that we dropped one of the Bissel riders (not sure whether it was the original rider or the one who followed me up), so it was just Patrick Bevin, Bissel, and me off the front. We killed it for a few laps and built up a nice gap, and then I started to hurt, bad. I tried sitting on for a few laps to recover, but he was having none of that, jumped hard going into a corner and I wasn’t able to hold onto his wheel. He went on to take a well deserved solo victory, and needless to say I was pretty disappointed to get dropped from the move.  In any case, I merged with a chase group of 8 or so and rode the remainder of the race with them until we got caught with around one lap to go. I was completely toasted for the finish and couldn’t do much. Chris said he was pretty tired too but still managed to get up there for the sprint, finishing 16th, and thanks to attrition in the field I was able to place in the money as well.

After the race I made a spur of the moment decision to follow Chris to Sunday’s Superweek race in Homewood.  Again the field was small for a Superweek race but high quality nonetheless.  It started sprinkling at the start, barely enough to get wet, but just enough to make things slick in the corners for the first 30 laps or so.  This caused a good bit of carnage/attrition, but both Chris and I were able to avoid the crashes and stay it in front of the splits. Chris was riding great and made the break of seven that took a lap on the field about halfway through the race.  After that we split our time between watching things at the front to prevent any of the riders a lap up from getting away again and looking at the lap counter and asking ourselves if there was any way we could really have so many laps left. You always forget just how long these 100k crits are when you haven’t done one in a while.  They did actually end up shortening the race by a few laps due to impending thunderstorms, and with three to go a rider from the Garneau team (who was a lap up) attacked.  There didn’t seem to be much of a chase going on, so with two to go I went to the front with Chris on my wheel in hopes of bringing him back and keeping Chris up front for the sprint. It didn’t quite work out, and I started to run out of gas with three corners to go. The Garneau rider stayed away to win, and Chris stayed up front for the sprint to finish 4th.  Once again thanks to attrition I was able to sneak into a money spot despite being blown and soft pedaling the last 500 meters or so of the race.

-Greg Christian