March review

March was quite busy, ending with Nicky racing in his 1st Cat 1 stage race in California, the Redlands Classic. A highlight of the NRC schedule, it is quite the entry to top level domestic racing. Two former TdF white jersey wearers (Alcala, Mancebo) as well as a former Olympic Gold medal winner were in the field, but the former Tour of California race leader, Francisco Mancebo, took top prize after three days of racing. Nicky and most of our local competitors from Elbowz racing were not quite prepared for the hilly terrain and the high speeds (28mph first lap in the road race) Nicky eventully DNF'd on the middle stage, but he learned some valuable lesson and experienced the top level of domestic racing and is wanting more.

The many of us competed in the local crit series with Jeff pulling on a yellow for winning a B race at the King Racing Group Thursday Nighters and ended the month with a 2nd place. Scot had a 4th place and a few vanity laps in front,as local pro Jonny "El Gato" calls them. Chris Snyder raced his first race, and Preston Smith had a 2nd place and a crash to show for his first races.

Collegiate races saw the guys travel to Waco for the Baylor Conference races. Spencer Guy was able to score a podium finish (2nd) in only his second race ever.
Nicky nursed his torn up hand to a top 10 in the men's A race, finishing his required number of races to qualify for nationals in May.

The Denton Crits that were held the first week of spring break, Nicky won his last Cat 2-3 race, then crashed in the P1-2 race after clipping a pedal seeing a great opportunity marred by the crash. We were watching the race with Jeff and Alex, and saw a very bloodied Nicky come to the staging area, with his Park Place teammates taking hime to the hospital, Caryn taking his bike back to our house.

The same day, Caryn posted a 2nd Place in the HCTT woman's open, now racing for King Racing Group and Scot had a personal best in the men's 50+

April should see a lot more races and then Nationals in Madison Wisconsin.