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

Grattan & Goshen

I haven't raced as much this spring as I would like due to a variety of issues (one of which includes driving to races on the wrong day), but I finally got my road season started last week. I was in Indiana and Michigan visiting family the last week and managed to get in one weekday training race and a crit.

Last Wednesday was the first Grattan race of the season. As the name would suggest, the Grattan race series is a weekly race that is held at Grattan raceway in Michigan. It's an AWESOME course. Fast, flowy, and a few small hills. I was on the fence about lining up for the A or B race (you're supposed to automatically race the B race if you've never raced Grattan before, but I thought I could get around that if I wanted to). After seeing some really fast pros registering for the A race, I chickened out and did the B race.

The race started out at a moderate tempo and I got in a breakaway about 5 laps in. There were 7 of us who got away, but three riders eventually fell off our pace. With about 5 laps to go it was obvious the break was going to stick, but as I was pulling off the front of the group one guy attacked and opened up a gap. I didn't notice it soon enough and he quickly got a few seconds on us. He managed to time trial the rest of the race for the win. By the last lap, we knew we would be fighting for 3rd. The Bissell club guy attacked half-way through the lap in a corner, but the other guy I was with closed down the gap. I rode his wheel into the finish straight and came around him with about 25 meters to go for a 2nd place finish.

The "I Love Goshen Crit" was part of Goshen's monthly Friday Friday events and was held Friday and Saturday. This was the first 3/4 race I had ever done, and the first crit I had ever done with a 180 degree turn in it. There were 34 guys in our field, including two Bissell-ABG-Giant guys. The race started out fast and I got stuck behind a guy who didn't clip in very fast. This led to me hitting the 180 degree corner in 20-25th place. From there, I was playing catch-up for the next 5 laps. About 6 or 7 laps in, there was a crash in the 180 degree corner that took out three or four guys in front of me. I didn't go down, but had to slow down enough that 12 guys in front of the crash got a big gap.

Within half a lap, one guy caught up to me and we started working together. For the remaining 20 laps of the race, we worked together trading pulls. Another guy fell off the pace of the front group and joined us with about 10 laps to go. Out of our chase group of three I took 2nd place in the sprint, putting me in 13th overall.

It was a fun but frustrating race. My legs felt tired most of the race and the crash pretty much eliminated any hopes I had of a good finish. Still, I felt positive about the results for my first cat 3 race. It was also a ton of fun watching my cousins, Peter and Marten, racing in the 1/2/3 race even though neither of their races went as well as they would have hoped. Less than two weeks from now is the Salina crit and RR, so it will be fun to get some more racing in soon!

Stuck between the break and the chasing field nearly the entire race.