More importantly, I met my season goal of getting on the podium in my first race of the season (August 2nd) and my first criterium race ever. Additionally, this was after upgrading from category five to four. It just so happened to be that it was the Master's state championships. The race came down to a photo finish, and although I was much faster than everyone else in the final sprint, I was too far back at the start of it and I just barely ran out of road. Just a rookie mistake! Second place was an encouraging sign and a confirmation of many things.
I also raced up Pikes Peak again in August. Although I finished fourth out of only seven, I still beat my personal time best by 3.5% and power best by 6.0%. A couple of weeks later, I raced the same criterium up in Golden and finished an encouraging fourth once again. The conditions were very bad for me, very windy with gusts up to 30 mph, so it was a completely different race and one that I was just happy to complete without crashing.
In many ways, although a very weird year, after only a few races I can consider this season a success and further improvement from my first racing season last year. I actually have worked my way up to being competitive in races, and if things would have been a little different, could have even won a race.
