Originally Posted by
hammer down
I raced the same B race in our local crit as Radish last night, only I did a much poorer job of positioning myself for the sprint. Oh well. 2 guys were off the front for the entire second half and ended up holding off the field, the chase kept the race relatively calm and smooth but didn't leave a whole lot of action for the rest of us.
Coincidentally last night was also my first 1/2/3 crit and it came exactly 10 months to the day of me buying my first road bike. Fun race but the pack splintered almost immediately which surprised me a bit. Got hooked onto a chase group and just tried to hang in there. Hopefully I have some better luck tonight.
The parts we didn't mention is that my teammate was in the break and got 2nd, and your teammate won the sprint and got 3rd. I stayed near the front after the break went up the road patrolling things. Going with attempted moves (basically only one serious attempt). I guess Hammer, if there was going to be a team that tried to bring the break back, it would be your team.
Based on my observation, there is usually a breakaway and a split in the A race. When you have a few really fast Cat 1s, the slower guys just can't stay with them. Not saying you are slower, but you know who I am talking about, the guys who have essentially no chance at finishing in the break or first chase group (hopefully I will be in that lagging group in the not too distant future).
I will post a vid of the race probably tomorrow. I took a look at the moment in the sprint where I felt delayed. It looks like nothing on video, but it felt like a big deal in the moment. When I look at the video I feel like I should have been able to stay on the wheel. But I couldn't. Just too weak I guess.