The server was busy yesterday evening - here's my report from Thursday's race:


Today's race was a half-hour long "criterium". For those not familiar with this type of bicycle race, the Wikipedia definition of a criterium (or, "crit") is:

"a type of bike race held on a short course (usually less than 5 km), often run on closed-off city centre streets.

Race length can be determined by a total time or a number of laps. The event's duration (commonly one hour) is shorter than that of a traditional road race. However, the average speed and intensity are appreciably higher. The winner is the first rider to cross the finish line without having been "lapped".

Success in criteriums requires a mix of good technical skills — in particular, the ability to corner rapidly and sharply — and riding safely with a large group on a short circuit and exceptional fitness to attack other riders and repeatedly accelerate hard from corners.

Criteriums are relatively easy to organize and do not require a large amount of space. They are the most common type of bicycle racing in the continental United States."

Although I was familiar with this style of racing, and had attended a Criterium Clinic earlier this year (thanks, Redding Velo!), I had never actually raced in one before today. Given their reputation as dangerous crash-fests, I was a bit nervous when lining up at the start with 20 other guys.

But, I also had a plan...it was to stay focused on riders 355 and 345. For this race series, they award points based on finishing order, and there's a prize for the overall series leader (roughly equivalent to the Yellow Jersey). Rider #355 (a nationally ranked age group triathlete from Oregon) was in the overall series lead, while rider #345 and I were tied for second place. So, I determined to keep them in my sights and see what happened.

The first few laps were a bit nervous and twitchy as the group got sorted out, and I got used to diving into tight corners in close quarters.



After the first 4 laps, I felt like the group was going too slow, so I went to the front and picked up the pace for the next 3 laps. It gave me a good opportunity to work the group, and get a feel for how it felt to be in the lead. 355 got on my wheel then, and I noticed that every time we hit one particularly technical corner we were coming out of it with a 5-10 meter gap on the rest of the group. The corner was an odd "double corner" (a shallow corner, a half block downhill, and a regular 90 degree corner...all with pretty bumpy pavement). It was the next to last corner on the course, about 300 meters from the finish line, and I hoped I could use it to my advantage near the end of the race.

When they announced 3 laps to go, 355 and I picked up the pace. We tried for a bit to break away from the group, but it just wasn't happening. Even though we could get a little gap on the technical corner, the group was able to close it before too long.

With half a lap to go, 355 had the lead, with me on his wheel, as we went very fast through the next to last corner. We got a pretty good gap on the rest of the group and sprinted towards the final corner. With about 50 meters to the final corner (about 200 meters from the finish), 355 indicated that I should come around him. Not wanting to pull him to the finish, I went by him as fast as I could, took the final corner at speed, put my head down, and hammered towards the finish line. I kept looking at the ground, expecting to see the shadow of a rider overtaking me, but it didn't happen and I rolled through the finish line with about a 10 bike length lead. It was unbelievable to hear the race announcer call out my number as the winner of the race!

Shortly afterwards, I stood on the top step of the podium to accept the gold medal.


As it turned out, 355 got passed by 4 other riders in the last 100 meters, and ended up in 6th place. Rider 345 (who had stayed in the draft through the entire race), ended up in second place.

So, with one race left in the series, I now find myself in the overall lead with 22 points, followed by 345 (19 points), and 355 (16 points).

So, it all comes down to today's road race...a 62K (39 miles) jaunt through the hills and canyons north of town.



Note: Steve Tetrick of Redding won the sprint for 2nd place in the Division 1 men's race (an awesomely fast group!). His wife, Bonnie, won the gold in the women's Division 1 race, and his father(!) Paul won the men's crit in his age group. Steve, Bonnie, and I were all wearing our Redding Velo kit today.


I also need to mention the cool couple I met this evening outside of the event center - Bill and Jean Meyer are from DeSoto, Texas (close to where I grew up), and are competing in St. George for the 7th year in a row. Despite being stooped with age, and in their 80's, they both had sparkles in their eyes, and each wore several medals around their necks with pride. Because they compete in so many different events, they stay here for 13 days each year! And that's in addition to other regional and national competitions that they participate in. What an inspiring couple...I want to be like that when I grow up!