Salina RR & Crit

Saturday was the RR. There were 22 cat 4 guys who lined up for the 65 mile race. A few guys tried to go off the front at the beginning, but nothing stuck for the first 20 miles. 20 miles in, a Cycle City rider took off and got a good gap. A few miles later, a Big D rider took off as well. Realizing they had a large lead on the pack, we upped the tempo and brought the guys back within 20-30 seconds before we turned back into the headwind. However, nobody else in the pack wanted to do any work at the front in the headwind, so our speed plummeted and the gap started growing quickly. After a frustrating 10 miles of trying to get a rotation going, I decided to attack on a hill with 5 miles to go and try my luck at reeling the break in by myself. I got a big gap and was gaining on the 2 leaders pretty quickly, but didn't have enough time to bring it back. I'm guessing I needed 2-3 more miles to catch them. I crossed the line in 3rd place.

There were major storms threatening most of Kansas late afternoon on Sunday, but the crit stayed completely dry during my race. Once again, 22 guys lined up for the crit. The first 5-6 laps were filled with small one-man breaks, but nothing that would stay away. About 6 laps in, someone attacked (I don't remember who) and 6 of us got a gap on the field. After a couple of laps with no organization and a 4-5 second gap on the field, we finally got a rotation going and began growing our lead. 

With 3 laps to go, it was obvious we would stay away and the tempo started slowing down slightly, especially into the headwind sections of the course. At the start/finish with one to go, I made a hard move to see who else had decent legs. I wasn't trying to open a gap, but I realized I had a bit of a gap. Instead of continuing the attack, I decided to ease up and take my chances with the final sprint (in retrospect, this was the wrong decision). The last half of the course was into a headwind. I was sitting second wheel behind a Velotek guy, and our whole group was moving at about 15mph since nobody wanted to pull hard right before the sprint. Kendall Wiebe (who was somewhere 2-3 places behind me at the time) made a great move and attacked before the second-to-last corner with a Cycle City guy and a MMCT guy on his wheel. The distance from the last two corners to the finish line was pretty short, so the finish was determined almost entirely by that move before the corners. Kendall took 1st, Aaron (Cycle City) was 2nd, Travis (MMCT) was 3rd, and I was 4th.

I never want to complain about a top 5 finish, but I wish I would have taken my chances with the attack on the last lap. There's a decent chance I would have blown up completely somewhere in the headwind stretch before the finish, but my legs felt good and I think I could have made it work. I also would have finished knowing I rode as hard as possible the last lap rather than playing cat and mouse for most of a lap. Oh well, it was a good learning experience!

I put in my upgrade request after the race and it was approved the following day, so it's Cat 3 from now on!

RR early in the race. Photo credit - Roger Harrison

Crit finish. Photo credit - Kendall Wiebe