The Criterium

It's been a week since the Time Trial. The Crit was the next day and I did promise to keep you posted, but I have had the darndest time getting these pictures uploaded and a really bad cold is creeping through all the Todds. Christopher started out with it. Today James and I feel pretty bad and Keith seems to be at the front end of it. Not making excuses, but just saying....it's hard to get to blogging.

Bike racing isn't Christopher's favorite thing, but he was such a trooper this week. He even ended up helping out this guy who was selling the "opportunity" to win $100 by riding a bicycle that was set up opposite, i.e., you turn right and it goes left. He said Christopher just pulled people in and was so encouraging. That's my Christopher.

We were there for James, who had had a very disappointing race the day before. You may recall someone crashed into him and Coach Kelli told him to stop the race, to save himself for the rest of the week. It was disappointing because we thought his best chance to medal was probably the road race. After seeing him on the course, hopes were high for the time trial. Not that we didn't think he'd do well in the Crit, he's just so strong in the other two.

I was a nervous wreck the entire day. Much more nervous that he was. I was so glad when they finally started the race. James had the best start I think I have ever seen him have. Coach Kelli told him to be one of the first five in turn one because we thought there might be a crash. She was right, but James was 2nd out of that turn.

It was very emotional. He led a couple of laps and got a bit behind other times. The kid that caused the crash seemed to be around him constantly (not in this picture - never know who's reading). At one point, he seemed to be getting dropped and then they would come around again and he'd be right in there. It was one of the toughest fought crits our coaches said they have seen.

He rode with such incredible heart and in the end...

He came across the line 5th. Good enough to podium...just 0.8 seconds from 4th place. I was so proud of him.

Nick, Coach Frazier's son and assistant coach, was right there congratulating him as soon as he was off the course.

I had to make my way through what seemed like thousands of people to give my boy a hug. It was so awesome.

His teammates also did well in this race. These are the guys that race in his age group...Rishi, Teja and Adi. We were proud of all of them.

We stayed very late for the podium and I'm sure James didn't get to sleep very early. Nevertheless, we would worry about the time trial tomorrow. He worked his fanny off for a well-deserved place on the podium.