Alabama Race Weekend - Criterium

So I have decided to stop writing these blogs as if they were in 3rd person. Clearly Curtis (Me) is writing them, so I'll forgo the formality and get down to the nitty gritty.

Day 1 was great with 6 guys representing UAH. Everyone got a taste of speed in the Time Trial, and everyone seemed to enjoy the chess game on wheels of the Road Race.

The TRUE test, however, would be how the new guys held up in a criterium, and how I would handle racing as an A.



The C's composed of Joe, Barrett, Clinton, Daniel and Josh rolled off at a brisk 10AM for what would be a 30 minute race. The course was QUITE technical and ridiculous, featuring 2 broad right hand turns, 4 sharp right hand turns, a quick S bend and a ridiculous switchback. In a field composed primarily of beginner races, crashes were certain, as was the eventual nuclear destruction of the "field".




Predictions held true, and the first few laps saw the C field riding single file at a super quick pace. Joe and Barrett sat near the front while Josh, Daniel, and Clinton hovered in the middle and back of the pack. As the pace continued to pick up, people started falling off. First was a group of 3 containing Josh. After the race, Josh commented :"Man, if you lose that pack even for a minute, you are done". Yes, Josh, you are correct. While Josh may have been one of the first to lose the pack, he was certainly not the last. Daniel soon found himself in no mans land, with Clinton in a small chase group about 20 seconds behind. After a few more laps, the race official (Stuart...) made the call to pull the riders that would get lapped. Without scoring cameras or equipment, Stuart was scoring/placing the race by hand. Lapped riders needed to be off the course to keep things honest. A very disappointed Josh, Clinton and Daniel rolled off and looked on as Joe and Barrett continued. Barrett found himself in a bit of misfortune as well. He ended up in a small chase group of 4 guys, but despite the intense efforts put forth by all the riders, they were not able to match the tempo of the lead pack. However the group was fast enough that they were not going to get lapped, and at that point Barrett was assured a top 10 spot. All the while, Joe sat in the top 5 of the pack, which contained about 8 guys, 2 from Alabama, 2 from Georgia Tech, and a few more stragglers. The Georgia Tech guys, in particular, made many attempts to ride off the front, and in one instance Joe simply bridged the gap seemingly effortlessly. As the final lap came around, Joe found himself towards the front of the group, he held the wheels of the attacks as the group whittled down to 4 around the last turn. Joe held on for the sprint to finish 4th, well ahead of 5th. Barrett lost his sprint at the line to the Alabama rider, yet still nailed down a top 10 finish. (Official results coming later).

The general consensus was that crits are much much harder and everyone needs to train a good bit harder to maintain the speeds required in them.

Back in my former riding days in Indiana, crits were my achilles heel. I could not have agreed with the other guys more. They are usually mindblowingly fast, unforgiving, and if you cannot corner well, you are in big trouble. For this reason, I threw my (possibly) cracked carbon race wheels on my bike to get every bit of advantage possible for the A race, which was again combined with the B race. We had a total of 8 guys this time around: Me, Sam (Alabama), 2 Florida guys (1 A, 1 B), 2 Georgia State B's, the Emory Cat 1, and a UGA B. Right off the gun the pace was not as fast as I expected. However going into this entire race weekend my legs felt like water, and I had not been getting the power out of them I typically do. The fact I was able to outclimb the field Saturday was ridiculous, and I felt particularly poorly about 45 minutes of threshold crit racing. Thomas from Emory, who shall henceforth always be referred to as Emory, tried early and often to make a break work. Sometimes Kyle from UFL would bridge up, sometimes Sam would help, but it seemed I was always the one grabbing his wheel. We had 4 premes, all of which were swept by A riders, and none of which I really cared about at all. Except the last one, which was 2 laps from the finish. Ala, we had a sprint and then only 1 lap to finish. On the windy front stretch I sprinted for that last preme, took it, and took the lead through the technical section of the course. Coming out of the switchback, Emory attacked, and I hesitated a split second too soon, and was not able to catch his wheel in time. While he did not ride like a Cat 1 yesterday, he definitely did when he made that attack. As I tore around the last bend, I could tell the pack behind me was frayed, so as soon as i exited the corner, i brought my best sprint legs out of NOWHERE and blasted up the road to take the sprint from Sam. Another 2nd place. Fortunately, about 25 minutes ino the crit I had found my race legs, was able to rider smart, I did hardly any work. And with the exception of hitting my pedal on the ground around a corner, the race was pretty uneventful.




All in all, the team had a pretty amazing showing. Joe got 5th in the ITT, 6th in the Road Race, and 4th in the Crit. Barrett got 9th in the ITT, 8th in the Road Race, and a definite top 10 in the Crit. Josh, Daniel and Clinton held on for their lives in their first road cycling races ever, and judging by their expressions and comments after, they are hungering for more. And I , who felt like crap going into the weekend, for whatever reason, and was entering the A(Pro/1/2/3) field for the first time ever, held on pretty well, even if I was only racing against 3 other guys. I am far from peaked for the season, and come late March/April, I should be money.

Pain is a part of bike racing, and this weekend, on the hilliest road/TT course any of us have ridden this year, we were all bike racers.

Next week we will be tag teaming 2 races. One is a non-collegiate USAC race in Georgia, and the other is the NGSCU road race in Dahlonega, GA. Joe gets 2 more mass starts, I get to gauge myself against a field of Cat 3's, and the new guys will get their chance to ride in a real pack. It ought to be fun...