Crit Racing in Dubuque

A beautiful day for racing high in the bluffs of eagle point park in Dubuque, IA. I lined up with around 14 fellow racers for the Cat 3 event. Looking over the field, it was evident that a lot of strong riders were present, and that most of them had teammates.

Right from the start, Bikes To You sent guys off of the front, one after the other, as other teams tried to get guys up to the break. The trick to this race was to know which break was going to stick, and then have the strength to be in it.

The race played out almost in text book fashion... Once a break finally formed that had strong riders from three different teams, it stuck because their teammates then used defensive techniques to upset the momentum of the chase.

Once it became evident that the breakaway was going to have a serious chance at holding, I realized I had to try and bring them back. Unfortunately, this turned out to be all but impossible, with the combined strength of three guys working together in the break, and their teammates very tactfully blocking the field, I was going to have to accept taking my chances in the dreaded field sprint for fourth.

My teammate, Bill Ford, had raced earlier in the day, placing third overall in the Masters 40+ (great job), so he said he was just going to 'sit in the back'. I wasn't sure if he was serious or not, but logic would suggest that after battling with Jim Cochran and Dominic (of atlas) in an earlier battle to the death, he would be tired, and also content with his success earlier.

Otherwise, me and bill, and the guys from HBA were left to chase, along with one or two riders without teammates. I would have been thrilled with placing top 6 (in the money), but still was hoping that somehow the gap would come down and the group would be caught so I could get another shot at being in the winning break.

Ultimately, we never gained any ground on them, and with three laps to go, I started thinking about next weekend. Perhaps, 'I hoped' if the guys behind me were actually hurting, I would have a chance to do well in the field sprint for fourth, but that would have been far fetched, considering how much energy I used trying to get in the original break, and then later trying to chase it down.

Bummer? Not really. This was a full on Cat 3 race. Success is nice, but experience and increased fitness are also reasons to race. Not to mention the fact that was a great way to spend a beautiful sunday. And getting 'schooled' by talented riders is nothing to be embarrassed about.

On the other hand, the TT bars are being installed on my road bike today. My new TT bike isn't slated to arrive until May (hopefully, maybe they meant may of 2009, Trek is a little behind schedule with their production), so I have to break down and put the bars on my road bike, as time trials and duathlons are soon becoming 'options' on my race calendar (a fall-back in case I end up just sucking at crits and road races).