Scotts Valley Twilight Criterium Jr. 10-12 and 13-14 Age Group Curtis Trueblood, Sam Hill, Mathew Dailey May 15, 2011

Curtis Trueblood 12 years old (race age 13)

Curtis, Kennedy, Sam, and Mathew getting ready for the Scotts Valley Criterium

Tweet! Off we go! Right from the get go two riders went off the front. I thought to myself, "Hmm, maybe I can catch them". So off I went 21,22,23,24,25,26 mph.  I watch my speed rise, but I still haven't caught them. I sprint around the corner, almost on their wheels, but then I get buffeted back by the wind and watch the DJ Market kid ditch the other girl rider. I slow up to wait for Sam and Matthew to catch up. As they catch up we turn a corner, up the slight incline and I see the girl turning the next corner. 

On lap three, I start to get a cold burning sensation in my chest. We are going into the wind and I realize that Matthew is pulling us at 20/21!! I use the excuse that no one is following us, at least closely, and that we should slow down. By lap six, we have now lapped 3 kids on mountain bikes, cross bikes and 2 kids that were swerving from one side of the road to the other. Matthew is still taking his pulls at 21 mph through the 12 mph head wind – Wow is he strong!! 

On the last lap, we pick up the pace. This time I pull through the wind (16/17mph). Sam pulls up to the front around a corner and half way up the incline we see the girl that had broken away. Sam yells, "Let’s get her!" and off we go sprinting up the incline. When we got to the top I forgot all about the girl and thought only about the sprint. I take 3 gears and pedal, right behind is Sam. I look down at the speedometer, 26/27. I look up and see Sam sprinting across the line as the announcer yells, "Look at him go! It must be Mark Cavendish Jr.!" I pedal across the line in third in my category. I think to myself, “So much for our plan - secrete signals, break-aways, and long discussed strategies, all of those would have worked if there had been a pack, not just a bunch of random stragglers.” But overall I had fun!! 

Sam Hill 12 years old

At Scotts Valley Mathew, Kennedy, Curtis, and I all went to race. We all started together and Matt, Curtis, and I stayed in a group the whole time. We didn't have trouble with the 10-12 so I tried to keep my lead. The 2 other 13-14 were gone. After the 1st lap they were out of sight. We kept a steady pace the whole time. We started dropping Curtis so he took shorter pulls and we slowed a bit. At the sprint Matt and Curtis sprinted against each other and I sprinted for fun. Overall Matt got 4th, Curtis 3rd, Kennedy 4th, and I won my race. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places for both categories got Giro sunglasses for prizes. It was a great day of racing and I hope to race there again.

Mathew Dailey 13 years old

After a 2 hour car drive, 3 or 4 hours of watching races and getting ready for our race, the race finally started. Two 14 year-olds attacked before the first corner. That basically meant that our hours of planning of how we were going to attack was wasted. Sam, Curtis and I were probably the biggest group of riders. The first few laps we could just see the two attackers, but after that, we had to slow down to avoid the lapped riders who were swerving all over the road. In the middle of the race, Curtis was a little tired and there was a 10-12 mph headwind on the backside of the course. When we got about 3/4 of the way through the race, I realized that a lot of kids had signed for the juniors race instead  of the kids race, they also didn't understand that if someone says, "On your left", that doesn't mean move left. We managed to avoid all the kids and a spectator who was yelling at me to "get on their wheel" and ringing a cowbells almost every lap. On the last lap, 2 corners from the finish line, we saw the other racer who was in the break and we accelerated to try and catch them, which we failed to do. In the end, we got first and fourth in the 10-12 and third and fourth in the 13-14s.