So around here they have 20 mile road races and 25 mile crits. Confused? Yeah, so was I. I still don't have an answer, but I did get my first road race in. I crashed about a mile into the 20 mile race, when a girl ahead of me went down for no apparent reason. I was just fine, so I got up and chased the pack on my own for a while. When I got around to the start/finish I found out that they had neutralized the race, so I got back in with the group anyway. It was pretty uneventful from that point on, and I took 4th in the field sprint. When the race was over, I caught up with my roommate and her brother for my first ever country concert.
A few of my collegiate teammates are country fans, and after enough time travelling with them that I've gotten a good feel for that genre. It was a really good show, featuring Heartland, an up & coming country group with some great energy. The next morning I decided to check out the local trails, and I ran into one of the girls I had raced with the day before. Back in Western Colorado, overgrown trails are totally hypothetical, a fantastical dream that is in no way realistic. Around here, things are a bit different. In fact, I eventually lost this trail and had to turn around.
This weekend I raced the most elite field I've competed against up until this point in my racing career. I got blown away in 12 minutes and 21 seconds at the the Iron Hill Criterium. I don't think I've been dropped that fast in my life, but I also have never learned so much in only 12 minutes. (If only I could cram like that during school!) This coming weekend I'll be meeting up with some of my Brown & Wills teammates in Seven Springs, for USA Cycling's Road Nationals.
Nationals has come and gone, and it could have gone a lot better. My teammate Nate wasn't allowed to race because they didn't take any riders on the waitlists. I was definitely disappointed with my own performance in the U23 crit. Luckily, Ethan had some good finishes in the 15-16 men, with a 66th in the TT and a 56th in the RR. 
It was great to be able to hang out with my Colorado teammates for a race weekend. Today I had to get back to work, but things are coming along there. I only have a few weeks left of the program here, but I've definitely been considering coming back next summer. Last week we had a birthday party for all the Hershey BBSI guys (the 3 in the picture), because they all have July birthdays. 
