Jared Berg takes 2nd at The Sonic Boom!

My Sonic Boom Lucky Pie Race Experience started with the Sweet Cow Kids race.  My little ones loved it and the ice cream after, even more!  I brought the family home and I headed back downtown to marshal.  I have to admit sitting on the corner of Spruce and Main had me a bit unnerved while watching the 35open group rip that corner.  I get pretty nervous about Crits for numerous reasons; the crowds, tight corners, sprinting is not my strength and like most I have crashed in one before.  Right after my marshaling shift was over it was my turn to race!

I rolled into a good start position and after a clumsy clip-in I was rolling into the first corner in around 10th place.  I made it my goal to stay in the top 10 the entire race, if not the top 5.  I just knew with eight 90 degree turns and short straight-a-ways their would be tons of yo-yo-ing from riders having to cover gaps from various reactions times of folks accelerating out of corners and such …and this would magnify the further back you are. I also wanted to launch a few attacks in order to trim the field down from 65 to a more manageable 15-20 guys.

I did muster up a couple attacks with one resulting in a break with myself and a really strong fella named Zane.  After only gaining 10seconds on the field in 4 laps I realized our efforts weren’t going anywhere or that I wasn’t as fit as I needed to be and decided to save up for a strong finish.

It was a great to have my teammate Derek West up with me; whether he was pulling the entire field or getting in some breaks himself.  It was also awesome to have Gibbles out there coaching and all the support from the marshals and of course my wife and screaming kids!

With all the chaos and final laps I though we were all together and didn’t realize that we didn’t bring back one rider.  So when the bell rang for the final lap, I thought I was going for the win!  This turned out to my benefit as going for a win is always more motivating than going for 2nd, thus resulting in me pedaling even harder!  I lead most of the 2nd to last lap at a strong pace, making me a bit inconspicuous as a contender and then launched an attack from the very front, sprinting up main street like it was the finish and then super hard up the two little riders not worrying about over extending myself.  I knew I could recover and capitalize on the fast and tight backside corners.  Well it worked and I had a nice gap going into the final stretch up main street, pedaled like the race winner to the finish and realized I finished 2nd a little bit later!

A 2nd place finish in a criterium is a huge success for me.  Thanks for the great race everyone!

Photos courtesy of Glenn Cratty Photography.