April 21, 2012
Saturday I raced in my 3rd
crit at the Sunny King Crit in Anniston, AL.
This race is one of the best in the state and was a preseason must do on
my list of races for this year so needless to say I was a little excited about
racing. This race attracts domestic Pro
teams for the night race and is a first class venue being it is part of the
NCC. Not to mention they were televising
all the races via velonews website. Race
time for the Cat 4’s was 2:05 and the weather was slightly windy and high 60’s.
ST3 Cycling had a good turn
out with Alan showing up early to get us a spot between turn 1 and 2. Mike and Alan both raced in the Master’s
race, James lined up for the 5’s, and myself, Alan, Reuben, and John all lined
up for the 4’s with this being John’s first race after getting his upgrade last
week. Now for the good stuff.
I rolled up to the starting
line and got a really bad position, all the way at the back of a 60+ deep
field. Luckily the course was wide and
fast so I was able to attack from the line and get to the front 15 by turn 2 on
the first lap. From the start it was all
out, my average speed for the race was right at 25 mph, almost 2 mph faster
than my other two crits this year so far.
This was a fast course, 4 left turns one block wide and 3 blocks long
with the back side a slight downhill and the finishing side a slight
uphill.
One rider from Absolute Racing
went off the front several laps in and then one rider chased, they were able to
hold off the chase for the rest of the race and kept the pace hard. This lead to a frustrating race for me as
Absolute did a good job controlling the front of the chase, not letting anything
go too far and chasing every attack down.
I knew I didn’t have the legs to bridge to the leaders so I settled down
in the top 5 and maintained a good pace and staying out of trouble. Luckily there were no wrecks in our race but
the fast speed and tight corners caused for a good amount of wheel and elbow
rubbing. I began my attacks with 18
minutes left, going off the front for ¾ of a lap and trying to get something
going but no one was biting. Went again
with 8 minutes left and went hard this time.
I hammered down the back stretch and hard into turn 3, carried my speed
through turn 4 and then let the group pull though at the finish line, this time
the tempo stayed up for several laps but anticipating a sprint finish everyone
settled down with 4 to go. I knew I was
feeling strong but knew I didn’t have the top end to contest a 200m uphill
sprint so I attacked with 3 to go. This
time I wasn’t bluffing. As I rolled
through the finish line and heard “3 to go” I got out of the pace line and
moved to the outside and stood to go.
Hit turn 1 wide and carried as much speed as possible and had the lead
into turn 2, I got a gap and didn’t let up down the back stretch and railed
turn 3 and 4 and then got caught leading up to the finish line, “2 to go.” Well
I was feeling it bad in the legs and only had one or two matches left to burn
so I let others pull through, and one attack later then the field set up,
conservatively resting for the final ½ lap.
We get around and hear “1 to go 1 to go 1 to go” now the pho attacks
come with everyone wanting to be upfront but not in the wind, I managed to hold
my line in the pack top 5 down the stretch and into turn 3, lost a spot at turn
4 and then lost 5 more spots up the final straight away to the finish. I finished strong but the legs just didn’t go
when I asked them to one more time.
Overall I finished 12th
and was happy on my race day. The team
showed great support and all raced smart and safe.
Here is my strava from the race and some pictures of the race.
Photos courtesy of Carol Roark York
Photos courtesy of Carol Roark York
Photos courtesy of Billy Ritch
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