Last weekend was the third set of races for the SWCCC. The ASU crit kicked off the weekend on Saturday with their traditional course around the tech park in Tempe. The Men's A/B took to the course for 30 minutes and the racing was aggressive from the start. ASU was out numbered 5 to 8, however, they played the aggressive card and made UA and NAU chase hard in the early parts of the race. UA rallied the troops midway through and started turning the screws on ASU by forcing ASU to chase down attack after attack. In the end, it came down to a bunch sprint with UA's Max Rich taking first, David Greif in 2nd (first for the B's), and David Carlson 3rd.
The Men's C race was much more open and ASU was the dominate team taking the win over NAU and a visiting rider from Adams State. The Women's A/B race, possibly the largest women's race of the day, was a little more tempered at the start but after the first prime things quickly broke apart. ASU's Lindsay Ryder took the win again over a hard charging Alexis Gannis (GCU) and Allison Alterman (UA).
On Sunday the conference traveled to the McDowell Mountain Park on the northeast side of Phoenix for a difficult circuit race. Field sizes were smaller than usual which made for tactical racing. In the women's B, UA went 1-2 unopposed. The Men's C field was slightly larger at 11 riders and was extremely fast from the start- nearly catching the Cat 4 field that started a minute ahead of them. No break would stick and it came down to a sprint with UA's Ryan Brown taking the win. In the Women's A, ASU worked their numerical advantage and placed Lindsey Ryder up the road forcing UA to chase. Ryder held on to take the win over UA's Allison Alterman. The Men's A race was a show of force by UA with 4 riders- Max Rich, Joey Iuliano, Andrew Keller, and David Carlson- lapping the field. Not content to just ride across the line, the 4 sprinted it out with Carlson taking the win over Keller. The final race of the day, the Men's B, was slightly more laid back than the A race. The only aggressive move came for the final sprint which was won by NAU's Alex Kaufman.
The conference takes a 2 week break now and the action resumes in Las Cruces with the Trifecta Omnium- a fun ITT, crit, and road race!
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