Lafayette Crit race report

7/13/2008

Cat 3s

Place: last or 2nd to last

Field: ~50 total

Feel Good: 8

Time: 50 minutes

Average Speed: 24.6mph

Max Speed: 35.8mph

Average HR: 183bpm

Max HR: 194bpm

Teammates: Chris, Jason

I arrived at the race around 9 and went to register. There were a lot of TD riders there which was pretty cool. I had a lot of time to kill and grabbed 26 Cliff bars. I had improved significantly in my last 2 races. I was 2nd at Diablo and 3rd in Davis, but I didn't think I would do that well in the 3s and if I was going to do well, I had to get in breaks. I warmed up for 20 minutes on the rollers and then I rode the course to get familiar with it. I lined up in the 2nd row and slotted in somewhere in the middle of the field. I stayed there for a while and then a break was established. It had 6 riders and they had a 10 second lead. I thought they would stay away and I wanted to bridge, but an opportunity never presented itself. A rider tried to bridge and I waited a couple seconds and chased after him. I was halfway across the gap and then going around the sweeping uphill bend I clipped my pedal and my rear wheel jumped 2 feet to the right and it scared me really bad. I kept going chasing the guy down, but the field was right there so I sat up and slotted into the middle somewhere. The break eventually gets caught and there are now 5 laps to go. I was in a bad spot to attack so I moved up with 4 laps to go. On the backside I attacked. The field was hugging the right side of the road, but going on the left was shorter, so I went on the left. I had a decent gap and increased it slightly going up the hill. As I crossed the line with 3 to go the announcer said something like "These moves hardly ever work out, but people always try them". I was thinking to myself that this guy should be encouraging me, but I had a big enough fan club by the McDonalds. I was getting tired, but still had a gap. I swung onto the hill with 2 laps to go and the field was closing in. As I crossed the start/finish they caught me and I was having trouble staying last wheel in the field. I was dropped with one lap to go and just eased up to cross the line in last, but I think I passed one guy.