8/23/03 by Jimmy MacDonald
Before Saturday the 23rd, the largest junior field I had ever raced in was two, but thirteen kids showed up for the 13/14 junior race during the PUR Tour. Right from the start things were chaotic, they ran the 10-12 year old race at the same time as ours and little kids were all over the place. After about a lap and a half we got a pack of five kids going at a pretty good speed. Two of them didnt make it when I started pulling the group at 20+ mph. We kept that speed for the rest of the race, but the two other kids couldnt pull for very long at that speed. I figured I would keep it up for the last three laps and go hard up the small hill to see if either of them wouldnt be able to make it. It came down to the sprint, and one of the riders, Bobby, suprised me with a very powerful sprint to win the race. I came in second by quite a bit. There was no cash prize for the 13/14 juniors but I did get a big trophy!!! After that we got to relax and watch the 9 and under kids do one lap time trials on their little single speed bikes(they did time trials because a mass start would be disaster with so many little kids). Chris (Scott) even saw a little kid riding by on his bmx bike while chugging a packet of GU. It was great to finally race with a bunch of other Junior racers.
The next day we went to the Ault Park crit. Catharine did awesome but she will probably write on that so I wont put it in this article. The course was a super-short(.63 miles) oval that was on a hill with the start-finish line at the top of the climb. I entered the cat 4&5 race. The race was fast from the start. A couple riders tried to attack before the first lap was over. I positioned myslef to chase them if I needed to, but they dropped back into the field pretty quick. I was suprised that there were no successful escapes. The officials even tried to break up the pack by doing about five prime laps in a row. I followed one large group of about fifteen riders sprinting for a 20$ prime but even they could not pull away for too long. After realizing that no one was getting away I sat in the middle of the field for the final ten laps. On the last lap I swung to the back of the pack to get to the outside then on the uphill sprint I passed more than half the field. I havent gotten the exact results but I'm pretty sure that I finished in the better half of a field of close to 40. It was a fantastic finish for me considering I'm a 5, and 14 years old.
It was so much fun riding with the juniors. The Ault Park crit was probably my best performance of the year. Overall the trip was great, but I was dissappointed of the lack of Freewheelers(there were 2 of us!!). I would like to thank Catharine and Chris for taking me down to the race and cheering for me so much during the Ault Park crit. I'm looking forward to my next race wherever it may be.