Quad Cities Criterium

Rock Island, IL was the venue for the annual Quad Cities Criterium and I must say that this had to be one of the best crit courses I’ve raced on. The course had eight corners and the streets were wide which made for extra-fast cornering and high speeds throughout the race. Rain started to move into the area prior to the cat 4 race but held off until we were finished. It would have been an absolute mess if it rained during the race because each corner had slick cobble-stone crosswalks and man-hole covers littered the course. Being that the rain did hold off we held a 26 mph average pace and pushing steady near 30 the last two laps. I sat in about 20 wheels back the entire race due to the high pace. I knew there would be no chance for me to try a breakaway with those speeds. Two riders did try to make a break about 4 laps into the race. They stayed away for about 6 laps and were quickly chewed up and spit out the back of the peloton. After managing to stay out of trouble throughout the race I moved up to about 15^th wheel on the last lap. I knew I had to make my move on the back stretch before the last 2 corners because the wind was a strong headwind after the 2^nd to last corner. I sprinted right when the front of the group was accelerating to the corner. I managed to pass about 6 riders before the corner and held my line and speed into the last corner. 150 yards was all we had before the finish line after the last corner but I managed to pick off one more rider. I finished 8^th in a field of approximately 45. It was a lot of work for a 4 hour drive each way, but the payout helped…