Saturday morning started with my alarm going off at a very unreasonable time of 4am! After packing a few last items, I was on my way to the airport to fly interisland to Kailua-Kona with Voytek and Casey. Thanks to some confusion on the start time of the Hawaii State Criterium Championship (it was listed on Facebook as being 10am) we were flying in early... Voytek's race ended up being at 11am, and my race closer to 130pm. Would have been nice to get an extra hour of sleep, but c'est la vie!

After we pick up the rental car, I call the hotel to see how early we can check in only to be told that because they're full, we can't check in until 3pm. Ouch. We drove to the hotel anyway, and fortunately Casey's room was available earlier.

I walk over to the car to unpack my bike, only to realize that I forgot to pick up my backpack from baggage claim. Back in the car, drive to the airport, deal with 3 different people with 6 different answers, finally get my bag, then drive back to the hotel. I threw my bike together, got changed, then we drove over to the Crit course. 5-turn course, all right-handers, a slight headwind to the finish, a 1-2% uphill grade on the backside, and a lot of idiotic drivers that don't understand "road closed to traffic". Casey and I witnesses two cars driving at each other, eventually stopping about 1ft apart and playing a game of chicken. The person that was right, chickened out and backed up.

Tony Lang ticked into his cheater bars poking a hole into the wind...

Tony Lang taking one of the primes... I wanted to fry the bigger fish.

The race started off like most crits... A bunch of fast laps, a few attacks here and there... Then about 20mins in someone mid-pack overshot a turn into oncoming traffic with a few guys hitting the deck, and the field splitting up. Fortunately I was ahead of the carnage along with Tony Lang, Ray Brust, and a handful of others. Tony took the first 3 primes, I took the final one, then launched my attack after the last corner to take the win ahead of Tony. A very short crit at 35mins +2 laps, but a good leg-opener for Sunday's road race.

Second State Champ Win of 2010. Tony Lang 2nd. Carl Brooks 3rd.

My BME Racing team mates all raced well. Ed Kurzenski took the 50-54 age group. Casey Tucker won the 25-29. Voytek Szymanski won the 60-64. 4 state champions in one team!