Bear Creek Crit Masters 35+ 4/5

Well...I finally did my first Crit...My son was impressed. I'm more of a roadie / TT / Stage racer guy and I've managed to stay out of crits. I plan to go w/ the team to LA next week and do an Omnium, so I figure what the heck, lets get some CRIT Practice.

The course  is more of a twisting circle w/ one 90 and one hair pin turn. It is a narrow lane. Anyway, I do the 35+ 4/5 group. I have a couple of teammates, Paul Wallen and James Smith in the race. The field was only about 30 or so. Anyway, I was very comfortable no nerves and was very relaxed most of the race.  The race was pretty easy...Since there was no wind, no hills, and only one tight turn there was no chance to get away. I tried the first few laps, and only hurt myself. From then  on  I took some pulls here and there, but it was just a battle for position. Kind of boring...

On the last lap Paul went to the front to try to stretch out the field. This allowed me to advance to a good position coming out of the final turn. The win was out of reach but a top 5 or 10 would have been pretty easy. I'm making my way up the right side at 34+ when some guy starts falling back and pulling to the right. I screamed on your right, he kept coming..I ended up doing 34+ through the ditch on 24 mm tires. I finally came out about 30 meters before the line, but dropped way back to about 17th. Hey I stayed upright :-)

Anyway, it was fun and I need practice maintaing  position in front of an aggressive field, so it was good. Looking forward to the LA race.  I think that CRIT is more around some city blocks and should be pretty fun.

Cold Spring Road Race

Got up at the crack of 4:45 AM, could not sleep. Fixed some French Toast  to get ready for the race. The race is about 45 miles over 2.5 laps w/ a lot of Texas Hills on the back half. I decided to ride the CAT 4's with my son who is showing a lot of talent as a bike racer.

My plan for the race was either to help start a break on the hill section on lap 2 or block if my boy got away.  Going into the first right hand turn I got in a poor position and wound up on the back of the race, as did Michael. Michael worked his way up through the back very aggressively on the first hill. I was so far back in the group I was useless. As I eased my way up, Michael attacks the second hill and takes a few folks with him.

I realized it's time to work and stop playing. I moved from 3/4 the way back up through the entire peliton during that climb to get in a position to block. I had some help from one of Mike's friends a Jr. for THSJ, Blake. We let some one and two's get accross until the break had about 8 folks. 

The blocking was very challenging as the the group kept working to bring back the break. They got with 4 to 6 seconds a few time. I would insert myself into the chase and juse make a mistake or two in the pace line. It was enough to disrupt the chance and give the break a chance. This aggressive blocking went on for over an hour. My normalized power was 284 watts during that period. I had no idea blocking was so much work. 

After we got through the hills the second time the break was away. We did some pretty aggressive blocking including moving bikes directly in-front of folks and slowing. The group then finally figured out what we were up to.

Anyway, I was happy my son was in the break and it was going to stick. I decided to try to lead Blake out for a good finish up the last hill. I got about 1/8 of the way up, and then the sprint came. I had nothing left and just moseyed up the hill.

Big lesson here was that I only drank one bottle. I need to focus on eating and drinking on the bike. I was really sore the next few days.