Huntsville Criterium Races- Cat 4 Crit

Sunday July 15, 2012

Huntsville Crit- Cat 4

After a good night of sleep and Mike being nice enough to give me his entry for the crit, I was up and ready to go at it in the 4’s crit Sunday morning.  We got to the race early and setup and with a start time of 11am I had plenty of time for a big breakfast and a good warm up.  If Saturday was hot then Sunday was teadering on being close to the center of the earth hot.  It seemed like as soon as I drank a bottle of water I immediately sweat it out.  While I was on my trainer warming up the sweat coming off my forehead was like a leaky water spout, yeah it was hot.  So water and endurolite pills were my best friends today and they kept me feeling good enough that the sun and heat didn’t bother me. 

Me and Alan warming up on the trainer while Mike tells us it's really hot outside

For this race ST3 had 5 guys racing as Mick was able to make it up for the day and get some time in the saddle with us.  The race took off at 11am and went hard from the start for the first 2 laps.  It seems like whenever you race and one of the 3 tours is on TV, people all the sudden feel like they have to act like the pros, and today was no different.  People were attacking and jumping, coming around hot through corners, it was a sketchy race to say the least.  I think the field had to be around 35 deep. 

Start of the 4's Crit

Once the field settled down Alan and myself started attacking and working the front to keep the pace high but didn’t work for too long at any one time as not to get caught with our pants down by some of the stronger riders waiting to launch their attacks.  Well eventually it came and Fisher went off the front and who would have guessed, it was immediately right after I had done a pull on the front.  I didn’t have the legs to chase so I sat up waiting but no one went.  Whatever, I said to myself, I can bridge once they get out there later in the race and plus it was early so maybe someone else would do work to pull it back and I could save my legs for the sprint.  A couple laps went by with no one wanting to do work, speeds crept to high teens and I knew the break wasn’t going that slow so I waited for my mark and hit it off the front with about 20 mins left in the race.  I hammered and pedaled through 3 turns and looked to see if anyone was coming and they weren’t, I was on my own.  Deep breath, I can do this, now let’s go! And I was off to chasing.  I hit my tempo and focused on breathing and keeping my speed up above 25.  About a lap later I heard a free hub spinning behind me and I never looked back to see if it was the pack or an individual, well it was 2 riders bridging to me, Jamie and some other guy that only stayed for about 30 seconds then he fell off. 

I knew Jamie was strong and we could work to bridge so we started taking 20-30 second pulls and trying to get the group of 3 back.  We chased for 3 laps and got within about 5 seconds but just couldn’t get that last 75m, Jamie fell off and dropped back to the pack and I stayed chasing for another 2 laps solo.  I wasn’t gaining any time and I looked to see there was only 8 minutes left in the race.  I knew I would not be able to hold that pace til the end so I began to rest my legs and ease back into the pack. 

ST3 Cycling riding strong at the front (Alan, Stewart, and David)

I was absorbed by the pack and fell in about 5^th wheel with 3 laps to go.  I sat there until the final sprint and was able to go hard the last 300m and take 3^rd in the field sprint and 6^th overall.  Overall I was pleased with my courage and ability to go after the break and try to bridge when I knew it would be tough as hell but I did it.

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