After have been suffering from some kind of post sickness fatigue the last week or so, I finally began to feel a lot better on Friday.
Since the race on Saturday was only a 14 mile ride from home, and with a start time at early afternoon, it meant a possibility to catch up on some sleep, have a relaxing morning and then leisurely cruising over to Volunteer Park, doesn’t get much better then that..
And did I mention it was 80’… only my 3ed ride with out leg warmers all year, (the 2nd was on a short lunch ride Friday).
Dalai Lama is in town all week, and with a Baseball game also going on, it was nice being able to park the car for the entire weekend, avoiding all traffic.
I haven’t done this race since 2004. I think it was cancelled last year, and the other years it was later in the summer when I was usually gone in England for wind tunnel testing.
This would be my first criterium of the year, although I consider this a non-crit crit, because of its simple course…
One big round loop, It’s just like Seward Park, but twice as big. Flat section by the Start/ finish, long fast downhill followed by an uphill that you can coast up halfway (especially in the slip stream of the pack) before a sharp right turn into the last 200m. This is always easier then a flat multi corner course, where you have no downhill to ‘recover”. On the other hand, a solo move is definitely harder, you have to work up and down to maintain your lead.
The race it went ok. You could tell that it was the first crit of the year for a lot of people, both by the feeling I got in the corners, and the fatigue you could see set in after a few laps.
I tried a move or two, bridged up to a short lasting two man break ½ though.. but nothing would stay away. Well, Clayville did have about a 12 sec lead the last 10 laps, only to get caught at 200m. With 1lap to go I was a bit too far back, and going around the tower, I managed to loose a few more spots… I definitely wasn’t “aggressive enough”.. coming around the last corner I started to sprint, and once I realized I wasn’t gaining much on anybody, I rolled across in 14th .. Teufel was up there and took 6th I think.
After the race I had nice ride home in the gorgeous weather… if it would only last, but rain and cold was forecasted for Sunday.
I decided to do the early race Sunday, trying to avoid the rain that was surly on its way.
When I showed up I was surprised by the small fields in all the races. Tom, Alex and I lined up for the A race. I could definitely feel some fatigue from Saturday, and I noticed that I didn’t have much of any acceleration coming out of the corners, or trying to get of the front. Tom and Alex did a good job covering, or making sure no move got of the front. Halfway though, the rain came, but all throughout race it never really got worse then a light mist. With 2 1/2 laps to go, I got seriously cut of in corner two, I had to slam on my brakes, lift my right foot to avoiding the curb and lost 20 spots. Now I didn’t have much time to get back up front. Going up the back side on the last lap I had managed to get back up to 5th, but when the three front riders surged and opened up a gap ahead of the 4th placed rider, I was too fatigued to respond right away…. And that was that.
I came around the last corner 5th, and then got passed by Erik Anderson, before the line as he sprinted by me …. Oh well, It could have been worse... Alex was right behind me somewhere in the last corner, but was taken wide and came out of his pedal, luckily he didn’t go down, but it didn’t help his finishing order for sure.
Now it started raining, and I decided to skip the last race and ride home before I got too wet and cold, especially as I had forgot to bring my legwarmers and raincoat. By the time I got home it was raining pretty hard, and I was happy with my decision, but there was still a part of me that wanted to race.
