Here's mine.
Kenosha Velosport Training Crit #1
No matter how many numbers you look at during training over the winter, the first race of the year always serves as a reality check or calibration of expectations. It also marked my first race on my new team,
Big Ring Flyers. I knew I'd been training right, so I was hoping to prove that to myself. Due to a crash in the previous race, and low turnout, the 3s were combined with the 1/2s. The course was 1km on a wide open industrial park with only two real turns.
My plan was to sit in for the first half to get the feel for the pack. For the second half, if I had anything left, I would chase or attack aggressively. The race started pretty comfortably. No one wanted to pull the field into the big headwind, so a strong solo flyer went off that stayed for several laps. It was a good effort, but a single rider in that wind would have been very hard pressed to stay off for the whole race, even if the field was not exactly drilling it. Meanwhile though, I felt very comfortable in the pack, managing to stay in the first 5 wheels. The race came back together just before the midway point, and I knew that would be my opportunity.
At the halfway mark, I chose to attack at the last corner, since there is a slight rise coming out of the corner, which would probably make it hard for the whole field to react. My attack wasn't exactly earth shattering, being maybe 700w for 20 seconds, but I was allowed to roll off the front. When I looked back and didn't see anyone with me, I sat up. I didn't like the idea of soloing for the rest of the race, and figured I'd try again in a few laps. When I got caught, the first thing I heard was "We got a gap". I didn't realize that the riders that had come up were not the field, but just two riders bridging. Bingo! We traded pulls smoothly for a few laps, putting some time into the field. One rider dropped, and then we were two. I think our gap increased to a maximum of 15 seconds. The two of us settled into a rhythm of half a lap each. Every few laps, I would look behind me when I was on the back. I saw a four person chase, but couldn't tell where the field was. We might have a chance! With two to go, my break mate faded, and the chase was closing. I figured I could hold them off for two laps because it looked like I still had about 5 seconds. When I came around again for the bell lap, the lap card said "2" again! No bell! wtf!
Ok, two more laps again. On the next lap, one rider bridged up to me moving very fast. He looked strong, but he was burning lots of energy. I figured if I could hang on, maybe I could out-sprint him at the finish. But then he sat up. What?
"It's over".
The officials never showed me the final lap. At least I got second for my efforts. And overall, I'm pretty happy. I've never considered myself a good break rider, but I did pretty well at it.
