The first race of the day was the cat 4/5 crit. Crit is loosely used for this race course since it was just over 1.5 miles with only two turns and 4 little inclines, two of which had the potential to really hurt. Not the standard, technical downtown crit course (from my limited experience). The finish was just over a slight right hand riser after a fast, slightly downhill straight.
I am going to try to keep this shorter for time sake and my quickly fading memory. So the first race was supposed to be 40 minutes with one prime lap. I barely heard the announcement and didn't know what it was for. By the second corner, one rider was a considerable distance off the front and easily took the prime and then reabsorbed into the field after. Not much else happened until the finish. So closing in on the finishing lap, I knew of about 4 or 5 riders I was looking after. A friend had informed me of a new threat before the race and the internet told me praises of another sprinter. It was this latter sprinter's wheel I was looking for on the run into the finish and I had it. Coming up the 3rd incline and the last significant one, I was sitting 4th wheel on the rider I wanted. He faltered over the apex of the climb and a gap opened between him and the 2nd rider. I quickly pulled out and moved up into 3rd wheel. As we started racing down the hill for the last straight before the finish rise and right turn, I think I was hollering "GO, GO GO!" to the two riders in front. I didn't want a train coming up either side of me (like I said, sketchy memory). At this point I guess my memory really goes because I don't remember whatever happened to those two riders in front of me. The next thing I remember was an attack coming from the left, and then this rider was immediately in front of me by about 3 bike lengths. And when I say in front of me, that's really how I remember it. I only remember seeing him and no clue where those other two riders went. So seeing this guy open a gap on me, a sudden feeling of "Oh crap, I have to go close this down." came over me. I'm not sure why I felt briefly intimidated by it, maybe from the struggles back at Hell of the South. Anyway, I knew I had to go. I did a quick check of my gears to make sure I wasn't going to immediately spin out, then I was up out of the saddle, pulling off to the left/outside, and sprinting up the slight right hand rise. I passed the leader on the slope of the rise and continued to gap. A little ways down the back side, I was spinning really high and had to sit down. At that point I took a glance over my left shoulder and saw the significant gap I had created. I sat up, arms in the air, and cruised to the finish. A beautifully executed sprint finish. It felt amazing! (Video below thanks to Will Montgomery)
With only about 45 minutes between races, I did a quick spin around the lower lots and then headed back to my car to mix another drink of EnduraFuel, grab a bite of banana, a muffin, and change numbers on my jersey. The second race was the 3/4 crit. It went similar to the first race with a few noticeable differences. Overall it was faster, the corners were huge bottlenecks with tremendous slowing sometimes down to even standstill and walking paces. There were several attacks off the front and a lot of sitting in for me. Being the only rider from HUB Endurance in the race, I felt content to sit in the pack and let all the other teams chase down all the attacks and pull the group around the race. As we started counting down laps, I moved up to the front; a little too far up to the front since I led about 3/4 of the 2 to go lap. I wanted to see how they would react to me on the front though. Would they let me go? Let me get a gap? They didn't.
So, coming off that last significant hill on the course for the run into the finish, I still wasn't far enough up in the group for my liking. I charged on the inside passing several people. I was moving up nicely until 3 or 4 guys in the line crashed down on me. At this point I had no where to go, so I hopped over in the grass. I rode in the grass, dirt, rocks, and bumps up and over the last riser for about 30 meters before I passed those guys and was able to safely get back on the pavement (I think my Zipps need some truing now). By this time the lead group of about 10 guys were already at the finish line practically so I knew my race was over. I gave another few firm pedal strokes passing 2 or 3 more guys and crossed the finish line in 11th place overall and the best placed cat 4 rider.
Great experiences for the weekend. I loved being able to get a great sprint finish in. I've proved to myself I can hang in with a cat 3 crit field. I saw the dynamics and benefits of having a team to race with in a crit.
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