Snake Alley Crit

"The crookedest street in the world" according to Ripley's Believe it or Not http://www.snakealley.com/. I would have to agree with them, especially after having to go up it 8 times in a race. Rolled up to the start line in order of registration which put me in the 2nd row, but that was ok since there was 28 of us starting, after we started one guy took off and I knew I had to try and hang onto him and anyone else that got off the front because once you get to the climb the road narrows quite a bit, and you wanna be up front to not get stuck behind others. First lap I was 2nd up the hill, but the leader took a wrong turn on the downhill and I yelled at him he missed the turn, so by the second lap I was in the lead and had a few guys with me. By the 3rd lap the guy that took the wrong turn caught back up to us and back up the hill again. A few more laps go by and I start to crack a little bit on the hill and loose a few spots from where I was at the time which was probably 5th or so. The worst part about this race is there is really nowhere to try and grab a drink, so you are working hard up the hill, and can't really get anything back into you, so I was able to grab a couple sips on the far section of the course. The last few laps I was with another guy and me and him kinda went back and forth until the last lap where I couldn't get out of my big ring going up to the climb so I had to soft pedal until it dropped down costing me a few seconds on it, but once you hit the Snake you have over 100 screaming fans making you work harder than you probably should, but in the end it gives you motivation to close small gaps, and by the top of the hill I was maybe 50 feet behind him, and knew I had to make up time on the descent. I took a few risks though some of the corners, but it paid off in the end since I was able to catch him on the section where there ae only 3 more turns and a slight uphill to the finish, I went to the inside on the 2nd to last corner and got around him, started the sprint at the last corner and end up beating him to the line. So with that last bit of effort that got me an 8th place finish, one place out of prizes, but alot better than I had thought. Overall it was 6.75 miles with 1104 feet of climbing with an average speed of 18.5mph. There will be pics up sometime, time to go watch some TV and go to bed and get ready for tomorrows race.

Snake Alley Crit