Ballard Crit Race

Saturday evening Levi & I biked down to lower Ballard for the Crit (Criterium) Race. It's a flat & fast race, the course being a two-block section of Ballard. They close off the streets, sweep them free of rocks, & then let racers ride crazy fast up Ballard Ave, round the corner & down the canal road, & back up again. There are five categories of riders, Cat Five being the beginners & Cat 1 the "pros." Due to the small amount of female racers, all the categories of women race together. It was the first crit race we have seen & it was incredible! Levi kept asking me when I was ready to head out & I never was--we stayed until the end of the last race at almost 9pm. A friend of ours raced in the mens cat 4 & he finished the race! That may not sound like much, but between 50-75 riders take off from the start & only about 25-35 riders reach the finish line. There are some painful wipe-outs, but the majority of the eliminated riders are cut from the race because they fall behind & cannot keep up with the mass. And they are fast! The mens cat 4 (that our friend raced) averaged 26 miles an hour & the mens cat 1, 30 miles an hour. It was incredible to watch them take the turns going 30 miles an hour!
We'll definitely be attending the next local crit race--I'm looking forward to seeing the women race.