adxm

There was some talk a while ago about the IV crit last Saturday. It was nice having all the info about the course ahead of time. Since I had a great race, and I really enjoyed the course, I figured I'd offer a report.

I competed in collegiate MB's for UCSD. I wasn't sure quite what to expect. In my first crit (also MB's), the Red Trolley put on by SDSU, there was a power climb before the finishing straight. I was able to sprint from the bottom of this for the win, after being towed around on a skilled teammates' wheel for practically the whole race. IV is fast and flat, and I wasn't sure how I'd fare.

My legs felt alright the morning of. I got an ok warmup, but I hate riding on a trainer and I'm probably not doing enough to really activate my legs on warmups. The field was 70 according to the official, making my largest mass start race. The course is D-shaped, with 2 90 degree turns fairly close together, followed by a long sweeping 180 on the backside, which leads into the finishing straight. We would do 32 laps, each about half a mile.

The pack started moving fast. My first concern was to stay out of trouble, so I kept in the first third or so of the pack. There were a few lackluster breaks, but they were almost immediately brought back. There was major sketchiness in the turns. Lots of kids couldn't hold their lines through the corners. Someone even crashed himself out on turn 1 a few laps in. With the poor cornering of most of the pack, I realized I could take a tighter line on the inside of the 2 90-degree turns, and with just a few hard pedal strokes, move up significantly in the pack by the start of the sweeping turn. I tried this out for the first prime, moved up to the top 5 going into the sweeper, and won it on the sprint. Sweet, I thought, things are looking good. I was able to recover well in the pack in between efforts. I sat out the second prime (which my teammate ended up winning) and ended up in 2nd on the 3rd prime.

With the race winding down, I stayed closer to the front than I had been, wanting to keep an eye on the front, as well as stay away from the poorer handling riders. Sure enough, with a few laps to go, there was a horrid sound of banging, scraping metal, and popping tires. Needless to say, I was very glad to be in front of it. Unfortunately, one of my teammates wasn't so lucky.

Now things were coming down to the wire. Riders kept launching feeble attacks, then deciding the better of it after giving it a short effort. I wasn't quite sure what to do, but I generally hung on the wheels of the kids doing the attacking, and it seemed to work fine. They wore themselves out, I was just able to hold their wheel and let them do all the work. And if a break happened to develop, I'd be in it. It was like this until the last lap, where we had about 4 or 5 at the front of the pack, and we started to pick up the pace, breaking off the front. I made sure I was always on a wheel, and was able to take the 2 90-deg turns smoothly. Going through the sweeper I was second wheel, just where I wanted to be. As the turn was straightening on the final stretch, I decided I needed to go for it right then to have a shot, thinking I could open up enough of a gap on the four guys with the group that I might be able to hold it. Mostly, I didn't want to go too late, and I think I have a fairly long sprint. I was able to accelerate a good deal off of the guy's wheel as I started sprinting, and looking back for a second, I realized no one was going to be able to catch me if I could just maintain speed. I held the sprint about 100m or so, winning by a bike length. 2 out of 2 =).

Pictures

Apparently I sprint with my tongue out.

For those just starting out racing... just a month ago I had no clue what to expect, and wasn't too optimistic about racing. You just have to give it a shot. Solid, consistent training at high intensity, along with moderately intelligent riding and decent cornering skills carried me through the crit. Coming from a history of recreational riding and endurance rides (doubles and such) I didn't know how things would pan out for me in short races. Turns out, they're a blast.

Next...an A's crit I guess. Woa.

race-me22

CONGRATULATIONS
Nice job. Looks like you had a lot of fun in that picture. Keep it up

DrWJODonnell

Nice job. You obiously won because you weren't wearing arm warmers or knee warmers. Weight weenie ! Seriously though, Great race!