Circus Crit in Portland

What an awesome race and event. This is a definite must do on everybodies calendar. This is an 8 turn .8 mile crit in Portland. This kind of crit has two races in it. First, is the race to the starting line. Second, is the race to the finish line. At a crit as tight as this it is really important to start at the front, it will make your whole night better. I had planned to be at the start line at least 10 min before the start to make sure I got a good spot. Good thing I did because there were a lot of people with the same idea. As I rolled up to the line people started to stage, so I got a spot on the front, first race won. The race started off kind of weird, as if people were scared to take corners fast. So the first few laps were brake sprint, brake sprint. This was killing me and I was on the rivet 5 min into the race, not good. Something else that made the race really hard was all the primes. There were $100, 50 and several 25 plus merch primes. It seemed like every other lap there was something so the pace was always high. Good thing I covered up my heart rate before the race or I would have scared myself. After a while the race smoothed out and I drifted back to around 10-15 and was in a very comfortable spot where I did not have to brake so much and could roll through the corners. This is kind of where I stayed until 2 laps to go. At this point it was time move up, this is also the time people start making all kinds of stupid moves like dive bombing corners and riding really aggressive. I tried to stay smooth and miss the crashes but it was full contact racing from this point on if you wanted to maintain your position. I made my move going down the backstretch to the top of the course and the last four corners. As we entered the last right hand turn I was in about seventh and looking good. Then we made the left three turns to go, huge crash behind me, and I can see the leader I give it a little more gas to hold position and go into the last to corners in 6th and that is where I finished. The race avg right aroung 26mph, for an 8 corner crit, that is flying. I was super stoked with 6th and am looking forward to the Salem race.

scott