by Jim Burt
March 22-23, 2003
Just wanted to give my 2 cents about the race.
All in all, I think we had a very good showing in the Cat V race. My legs were a little rubbery going into the race(s), but I seemed to ride strong. The first 1/2 of the road race I was riding in the front of the peleton. I was working the peleton, putting in some pulls, spiking up the pace. I was even marked by a couple of riders (I heard someone say "watch that guy in the boneshakers jersey")!!
After one of my pulls, I backed off. Since I had been moving around in the pack pretty good, I didn't think anything about it. The next thing I know, I'm in the back of the main peleton. I spend the next 1/2 of the race trying to get back to the front. The pace stayed low, and the pack stayed tight (3-4 abreast in the lane). There was NO way for me to advance (without violating the centerline rule).
I finished 24th out of 60.
Road Race Lessons Learned:
1) If you fall back more than the first 10-15 get on it and stay up front.
2) We have a strong team. We all need to be riding in the front working together.
3) If one of us gets 'trapped' in the back, raise the pace or do something to assist in getting them back up front.
Now, on to the CRIT!
The Crit was 30mins + 3 laps. The last crit I played in was the tuesday night crit. During that adventure, I became collateral damage from another crash. I went down hard and split my helmet in two pieces. I walked around in a fog for the next 2-3 days. Needless to say, I was a little hesitant about racing in this one.
The course had 2 nice long straights (each ~1/3 mile), but the turns were harrowing. Turns 1 & 2 weren't too bad, but turns 3&4 were evil. The last 2 turns were at the end of a descent and extra narrow & tight. I didn't like going through this section by myself, much less 2 or 3 abreast!! If there is a wreck, this is where the pile up would occur, and it would be nasty.
As the race progressed, I worked to stay near the front (see lesson #1 from the day before). Whenever I would fall too far to the back, I would get back on it and push to the front.
The peleton would hammer up the hill and recover on the downside. I really think our speed was faster on the climb than on the descent! I held on up the hills (my hill climbing is definitely improving), and would occasionally pull on the descent if the peleton was slacking too much.
With 3 laps to go, I notice a the 'bigfoot.com' team move to the front with 3 riders. The day before, they launched an attack and had a good 200yrds before the peleton was able to get organized and catch them. I wasn't going to let them get away with that today. I moved to the front and I was running 4th. If some one from their team jumped, I was going with them. They never jumped. They sat in for the next 3 laps.
On the final lap I was running 5th going into turns 3 & 4. After turn 4, the finish line was about 150yrds up the hill. Everyone got through the turn cleanly, and we hammered going up the hill. Now my stupidity kicks in. As we are hammering up the hill, I am running in 5th. I'm not making any ground on the 4 in front...but I'm not losing any ground either. With about 50-75 yrds to go, I see that I'm not going to advance my placing, so I back off and slow down. Shortly after that, 3 guys pass me DOH! DOH! DOH! Yeah, I forgot there was a race going on behind me!!!! I start to get back on it so I don't lose any more places. As I'm getting up to speed, 3 more guys sneak past me right before the finish line. Due to my stupidity, I slid from 5th to 11th! Still a respectable finish, but I shouldn't have 'sat-up'.
Lesson Learned:
1) The race isn't over until you cross the finish line!