I had only done about 3 crits prior to today. There is a certain art to being successful to these things. You have to be more than just fit. You have to be tactical. Today was my best result in a crit, but I still have a lot to learn.
Crit is short for criterium, but if you look up the definition of criterium, it doesn't quite fit the North American version. On this side of the pond, the courses are usually about 1 to 2 miles long with several turns. They last anywhere from 45 minutes to a little over an hour, so they are really fast. High speeds and tight turns make for a lot of action.
I ended up racing Category 4 today. I made a feeble attempt at racing the 3s, but the promoter put the kibosh on that. That's another story, and I understand and respect the promoter's position.
A group of about 70 guys started doing our circles at around 11:15. There was one pretty sustained and fairly steep climb in the race. Sustained and steep for a crit I should say. They are usually fairly flat. It was definitely a big ring climb and only lasted about 30 seconds of each lap.
About 15 minutes in, I decided to test the ol' legs a bit. I opened it up a bit about 20 meters from the top of the hill, and powered over the tap. I got a solid gap on the main field, which, is a first for me in a crit. I hammered it a bit, and managed to get some more time on them. As I looked over my shoulder, and/or under my arm, I saw another guy bridging the gap to me. I'm thinking, "sweet, someone to work with and see if we can make this thing stick." Well, apparently he didn't have the same idea. He comes flying by me without even a consideration of doing any work together. I was kind of baffled by it. Especially in a crit where big breaks aren't usually too successful. I wasn't even remotely ready to try to get on his wheel. He was gone, so I decided to drop back to the pack and see if I could organize a chase. Better to do it with someone and not alone. Nobody else seemed to like that idea though. I would pull hard and peel off for someone else to pull through. Never really happened. Some guys would take the lead, but there was never a real solid, consistent push to catch the guy off the front.
After a while, I gave up on catching the guy. I decided to sit in the pack for a while, but some riders were getting a little crazy on their bikes and there were constant decelerations. I went back to the front and tried to push the pace again.
I'll take you to the last lap. The finish was stationed at the top of the hill I mentioned before. The group started picking up the pace down the hill for the last lap, but as we hit the flat straight section at the bottom, everyone slowed up again. By this time I was frustrated with that crap. I decided to power to the front. I knew it was kind of early, but I thought, "hey, maybe it will stick or I'll at least wear those guys out before the sprint." Well, it worked for the most part, but a few guys got around me in the middle of the hill. I ended up holding on for 6th.
Not such a bad result for a tough training week and a four hour ride the day before. I need to get over the mental hump of, "I'm going to hard right now. I'll never get away with it." I need to try to make a break stick or when I decided to hammer a bit, just be smart about it and keep a solid effort. I guess that is part of leaning the whole crit thing. Hope none of those other guys are reading this. Ha.
That's it for today. I've some music that I want to write about, but that will have to wait. Here are some Google Earth Images of the race course.
The course went clockwise on these roads.
This gives you some idea of the hill.
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