Saturday, March 24, 2012
Today I raced in my first crit ever at Tour of Tuscaloosa. I raced in the cat 4s and the field was 65 deep. The course was a non crossing figure eight and was about 1.2 miles long with 2 up-hills that made things tougher than they should have been and one long downhill with speeds hitting mid 40’s every lap. The wind was pretty bad for our race and kept the flags in fluttering squares every time I saw them.
I was able to get a good start and get to the front 30 by the second turn on the first lap but from the start it was a hammerfest. We hit the first lap hard and were running a double pace line for the first two laps with no respite. On the 3rd lap I was finally able to catch a breath but in just a few pedal strokes found myself off the back chasing to get back on. Learned that lesson the hard way, there is not rest in a crit. I got back on and made several attacks through the turns and worked back to top 20. On laps 5 or 6 I got on the front and began looking to see who was up there and could contend and who was just sucking wheels. I marked my guys to not let get away and began sitting in top 10-15th, staying out of the wind and limiting my work at the front. It was constant jockeying for position to stay in the top 20 because every time you would get a wheel, 3 or 4 guys would come around you then force themselves back in line. So it was kinda like musical chairs, but in a 4 or 5 wide pace line at 24+mph 15 to 20 rows deep. Needless to say I bumped a few handlebars and rubbed a couple wheels but no one was listening to anyone and everyone was racing way too aggressively to stay out of the wind so whatever. No one went down but there sure were some squirrely riders in that pack.
The first time I looked down at my computer to see where I was at in the race was at 25 mins in. We were suppose to run 30 mins plus 3 laps but I think ended up running closer to 35 + 3 with an overall time of 42+ minutes. I knew the 3 to go would be coming up soon and no one in our group was strong enough to ride away from the field in that wind so I sat in and tried to recover and save my legs for the last couple laps. Then it came, 3 TO GO 3 TO GO 3 TO GO!
It was like clockwork, we passed the finish line and the first attack goes. I was able to stay top 5 for lap 3, which was a mistake, I ended up doing too much work pushing the pace and fell off with 2 to go. Most of the field had been pulled by that point with only about 40 riders remaining and I found myself with 1 and a half laps to go sitting about 30th. I attacked hard turns 4 and 5 and was able to get a couple spots back but was way in the red and we still hadn’t heard the bell for the last lap yet. I held my bars as tight as I could, kept my cadence high, and just did not let myself get a gap from the riders in front of me. I was able to hold that wheel until ½ a lap to go and that’s when I made my move. I attacked on turns 5 and 6 this lap and moved to the top 10 and was chasing hard. A gap had opened up and I had to real in about 25m on my own, which really hurt, keeping this PG by the way but it was very very painful. My legs were burning, my hands were numb, my neck was cramping and I was seeing stars. I caught his wheel just as I dove into the second to last turn which I railed at close to 30 mph. I came out of it hard and got a couple spots and could see the leader about 10m in front of me. I came hard into the last corner with the finish 150m away and swung wide to the outside, carrying every last ounce of momentum I had. It was a mistake because I rode the last 150 in the wind by myself while the 3 guys I just jumped tucked in and pace lined it right past me to keep me out of the top 5. 8th place on the day out of 65 and I was really pleased. I stayed upright, had no mechanicals, and was able to get a top 10. Those were my pre-race goals so nothing bad I can say about my results there.
Overall on the day we had a great turnout of team members and a lot of support for the first race of the year. I think Alan and Mick have put together a great group of guys racing for ST3 Cycling and I look forward to having a strong year with them.
Here is my Garmin from the race.
Here is my Garmin from the race.
Here are some videos of the race John Soto managed to get for us.
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