Sinead Miller, top-10 at National Championships!

Congratulations to South Park, Pennsylvania's Sinead Miller, who raced to a strong 8th-place finish in today's National Criterium Championships for Elite Women, in Downers Grove, IL. Sinead, who has been preparing specifically for the nationals since last month, entered the race with amazing form and a string of top-10 finishes. She was 10th last weekend in North Carolina at the Hanes Park Criterium and rode home in 5th last night at the Downers Grove warm-up race.

In addition to specific work-outs on the road and racing with her local club, the Allegheny Cycling Association, Sinead also completed a crash-course (no pun intended!) in sports psychology. She employed techniques of visualization and self-affirmation to train her mind along with her body, and fully-expected to stand atop the podium today. But a near-crash with two laps to go knocked Sinead out of the lead group and cut her off from eventual-winner Tina Pic. Where a lesser rider may have abandoned or simply sat-up, the 19-year-old Marian University student and varsity athlete fought her way back towards the leaders and still managed a top-10 finish.

With crit nats now a part of history, Sinead turns her attention towards the velodrome, where she'll race as captain of Marian's woman's team.