Old Pueblo Grand Prix

Today was the downtown crit. It was pretty much fun to watch. It's a 0.6 mile course, so riders come around often. This the course map.

The start line.

Here is me, wearing my hat with the wide brim. Wide brimmed hats were the order of the day.

Look at the rider in the middle of the photo - that's Doug Perry. He's a really strong rider. The master's group he was in was 55+. It would have been better if they'd broken out the riders into 5 year categories, but Doug held his own with the youngsters.

This is the 45-54 y.o. masters group. They were pretty dang fast. Look left in the photo, see the rider who is fairly upright, unlike everyone else in the shot? He went wide on the corner and got yelled at by the pack.

This was the bad turn on the course. Two young female riders went down hard, one broke a collar bone. We saw 2 guys go down while we were there.

See the young man on the ground? It was pretty amazing that no one hit him.

After the pack went by, the fallen rider leapt up, grabbed his bike and ran back to the service area, which was a couple of blocks away. I've never seen anyone run that fast in road bike shoes. Apparently you're given 3 laps to get back in the race, and he wanted in. We did see him ride by later.

El Grupo was out at the races today. They had 5 riders in the Cat3/4 races. One of them was all of 14 years old. I saw my old Trek Pilot frame, which I donated a couple of years ago. It has found a wonderful home, being ridden by a young woman named Lizzie.

It was a very pleasant way to spend the day. The course was fun because it was short. We watched the police deal firmly with several inebriated citizens which was interesting. The police have truly perfected the command voice when they want someone to do something.

I am still fairly sore from yesterday's ejection from the mountain bike; my right side erector spinae and pectoralis muscles are tender. There probably won't be any bruising worth photographing.