Brent's slowly getting better at racing...

As most of you know, I started bike racing this year and overall it has been fairly good so far. I haven't crashed...although I have seen at least half a dozen people directly next to me and around me hit the pavement pretty hard. Hopefully I am not next! I think so far I have competed in 8 races (4 Criterium races, 3 hillclimbs and 1 Road race) and in most of them I have finished anywhere from 12th to 39th which is about the top 15% to top 50%. For my first year of racing, this has been pretty encouraging, but there have been signs in most of those races where I thought I could do a bit better even though I am still new to the racing scene.

Finally, last night I had a break through. I was able to finish 4th in a criterium in Golden, CO and earn my first few upgrade points (you need a certain amount of upgrade points to jump up to the next category and they are only earned by placing in the top 10 in a race). In several of the other criterium races, I have felt strong but tried some different strategies that have taught me a lot, yet not yielded great results. This time I was more patient, stayed towards the front of the pack for most of the race, and then I moved up on the last lap to lead out the sprint. Two other guys got about a 5-10 meter gap in front of me after I led out, and then 1 guy got me at the line as well, but all in all it was a great finish and exciting to experience what it's like to be in contention for the win. Sorry, there are no pictures to show from this as my wife was having a good time with Gavin at dinner at our good friends Chris and Megan's place and our team photographer was on vacation or something. Anyways, just wanted to share the good news. Hopefully soon we can have some update on how Gavin and Tara are both doing.