amy alison dombroski

Sunday the 17th was the prized North Boulder Park Criterium, which used to be part of the Red Zinger and Coors Classics, back in the glory days. I spectated last year and watched the field let Mara Abbott ride away to solo in for the win. The previous year was similar, though I was racing, and was the only person willing to chase. That's how some Colorado racing can be – negative, frustrating, with no one willing to work. A lot of people can't seem to grasp that if you're not first, you're last. So, I was ecstatic to have Gina in town for this crit. It's a fairly technical crit, starting on a slight incline before diving down a hard left turn, which leads to another hard and rough left turn into a pot-holed alley way. The alley way is a straight shot of about 500m with a tricky and dangerous left turn into a quick s-turn before another left onto the finishing straight. The finishing straight is a long grind; an uphill drag into a headwind.

Gina drove down from Vancouver in her VW hippie bus, and set up camp outside of the house I am currently renting. The race didn't start until 5:40pm, so we had all day to get in a morning spin and drink lots of Grain's Grinds coffee – smooth like butter with a swift kick in the arse like jet fuel.

The race started off at a fast pace, as one of my fellow cross racing rivals rocketed off the line. I was on her like white on rice and we already had a gap on the rest of the field for the first lap. The announcer didn't waste any time before calling primes, as we heard the bell for $50 on the second lap. It went like this throughout the 45-minute crit, and at one point there were five primes in a row! This kept the pace hot and the 50-woman field was decimated within just a few minutes. Indeed, in the end there were only 12 women sprinting in for the podium. It was aggressive racing throughout, as Meredith Miller of Tibco showed up and showed off with a few solo attempts. Tiffany Cromwell of Colavita is always gunning to ride hard. Mara Abbott was active, smartly attacking when everyone was gassed. A few fellow Colorado-ans whom I have raced with for the past few years were riding strong. And everyone was contributing to stringing the field out like a runway model.

After Gina claimed five primes, there were four laps to go and it was time to get the guns primed. With three laps to go I was sitting pretty, 3rd wheel from the front, just maintaining position. At one lap to go, Gina was glued to my wheel as I sat on Meredith's wheel through the alley. I took Gina around her through the s-turn, and went hard up the first 200m of the finishing stretch, utterly excited about my first chance to lead Gina Grain out! With about 300m to go, Gina jumped around me, taking the W with Tiffany Cromwell following in 2nd. I rolled in a couple bike lengths back in 8th.

It's always exciting for me to race at home in Boulder because it's like a giant party with all my friends and riding buddies out grilling, heckling, and cowbelling. It was especially exciting this time to be aggressive and work together with a teammate and come out victorious!