Captial City Criterium: Race Report

Saturday was the Capital City Criterium. My team and the shop host this event so it was a busy day for me outside of racing. I had to get there early and set up the barriers and then it was time for the Cat. 5 guys to take off so I played the role of soignier getting them everything they needed and ready for the race.

the cat 5 crew
After their race was over I got changed and started to get warmed up. I had the trainer and was able to listen to my tunes under the tent and try to prepare myself to race. I wasn't feeling the best and was a little tired from the weeks training. When it was time to line up I was surprised that so many people got to the line early and I was stuck towards the back.

waiting to start at the back
When the whistle blew I was not ready for the super fast paced start and with my starting position so far in the back I had to push really hard to try and get up to the front. The course was .7 miles long and it took me until right after we finished the third lap to catch back onto the leading group. At that point I new I had burned most of my matches getting up there and unfortunetly I wasn't able to hang on for very long and was shortly split out the back.

I managed to catch on with a couple of other riders that popped about the same time I did and we worked to chase but a couple of the riders kept slowing down when it was their turn to pull at the front so myself and another rider did most of the work and we just weren't able to close the gap.

Towards the end of the race I think out of frustration I started to take a lot of risks around the turns and ended up going to far out on one and hitting the curb on the median in the street which was enough for me to lose the group I was in and I spent the rest of the race riding solo. In the end I finished 14th out of 30 and felt I could have done better than what I did and know that I still have a lot of work to do.

Tomorrow I should have the report up from Sundays race. Later.

Harp