Sonic Boom Crit 45/4’s
CO State Championships
18th/~40
The Race
We did 22 laps @ 90” per lap. Our crash came at 11 laps; they halted our race for 20 minutes while the half dozen injured were tended to and ambulanced away; we did 11 laps after.
The race felt harder to me than my power numbers indicated, surely because I’ve been sick. I was never a contender; I mostly tail gunned. It was a disappointing end to my season.
I got yelled at for dive-bombing a corner at the top. It was a slow speed corner at the top of the hill; the guy in front of me left a space to the curb at the apex, and this was after he brake checked. I dunno, it was mildly aggressive, but I’d probably do it again. It is exactly the kind of thing that is considered a perfect pass in CX.
I saw LAJ before the race, but, weirdly, never during the race. I did see that he DNF’ed. I fear that he was in a crash but I hope not. LAJ you out there and OK?
The Course
This course is bad. It’s a short course, L-shaped, the first half of which is a slight uphill and the second half a slight downhill. The final turn is at the end of a long downhill straightaway, has very rough pavement, and a very narrow exit. The narrow exit is bounded by poles and steel fencing that demarcates sidewalk restaurant dining. If you don’t late apex this turn, or if you slide out, you will eat **** and very likely not walk away.
To make matters worse, this turn is only 50 meters or so from the finish - not enough distance to pass after the turn. Therefore the first into the turn is the first to the line.
The result is a downhill sprint into a technical and unforgiving turn, and much carnage, especially in the lower cats.
Years ago I raced cars for a bit and I was always impressed how safe most race tracks are. For a lot of the difficult turns, there are big run outs with pea gravel, or at a minimum an open field with no trees, so that if you make a mistake, you don’t pay with your life. This crit course has nothing in common with those well thought-out designs.
The first time I raced this course it was scary. Today, the second time, I was terrified, and my main concern during the race was not getting through the turn quickly but just getting through the turn. I won’t race this course again; not only did I not have fun but the risk was way out of whack for the fun received.
The Crashes
More of today’s races than not had crashes in the final turn.
I think there were a total of 5 or 6 ambulance rides during the day. My understanding is that some of the victims were very bad off.
By the end of the race after mine, there was not one but 2 ambulances on station, and it looked to me like the fire station chief came out to see just what was causing all of these ambulance trips.
There were so many crashes during the day that late in the afternoon when it started to rain the head official made the call to cancel the last 2 races, which were the pro women and men.
The Negligence
We as racers sign releases. We can’t blame anybody but ourselves if we find ourselves on a dangerous course. I do know a few who showed up and decided to not race - wow what wisdom/discipline. To bad I was such a sheeple - I question my judgement.
The race directors and/or officials need to use some judgement in course design. I know and respect both the head official and race director for today’s race, and they both have forgotten more about bike racing than I’ll ever know, but today I think that today both performed sub-par at certain aspects of their job around the area of race and racer safety.
Races today are held at available/affordable/permit-able venues, of which there are not many, rather than good/safe/challenging/interesting racing venues. It’s a sad state of affairs.