Big Creek Road Race

I ended up participating in the Big Creek Road Race Saturday. I have mixed reviews of the race, and I believe it has a lot to do with the fact that this wasn't actually a USAC event. There weren't any officials present so the race just had a different feel.

Great field of over 20 Cat 1/2/3's racing for 7 spots. We were supposed to be doing 57.5 miles. Unfortunately, there were some math issues so we only ended up doing about 52 miles. This was sort of discouraging, because it wasn't clear to me how many laps were left. Also confusing was the fact that after about 2 laps of our 8 (or maybe it was 9) lap circuit the other races were mixed in with ours. This kind of made it hard to keep track of breaks, though was strategic to some of the moves as they could 'hide' in front of the other races.

At some point, a break of about 7 eventually got all together. Some of the riders were Lou Wagamon, Sean Walker, Bryan Moritz, Ryan French and Clark Priebe. That left quite a few riders in the peloton with no reason to chase as they were protecting their teammates.

Dewey Dickey, Paul Deninger and myself took charge of bringing back the break (Rich Wince eventually helped out as well), though we seemed sort of hesitant. I wasn't convinced that those sitting in weren't going to lauch off the front, taking advantage of their fresher legs. And, of course, if I had truly given a maximum exertion to insure things got back to together, I would have been toast for the inevitable counter attacks.

We were really just screwed. The phrase I overheard 'well this will be a good leg opener for tomorrow' became the theme of the peleton as this reality sunk in.

I saw the lap card read 2 laps, as we swung around. Unfortunately I was delusional. As we neared what I thought was the start of the bell lap, Will Greenwood, Andrew Fagersten and Rich Wince went down, Dave Lippold of All Nine Yards started driving the pace (in retrospect this was a lead out) and some guy in orange started attacking (again, this turned out to be a 'sprint'). As we crossed the line, I prepared to go right to start the last lap. Nope, that was our sprint, I guess.

Sort of a bummer. I verifed that my spedometer read only 52 miles, so we were indeed cut off by one lap. NOTE: the other riders weren't as confused about this, so no big deal. Since each race was doing a different number of laps, it turned out that we were supposed to be keeping track of our own laps. This is understandable, as I can see how the lap 'ref' wouldn't really be able to keep track of which race was which as we pased him.

This is a laid back race, and caters specifically to beginners and women. It is put on by the female all-nine-yards team and set up so you don't need a license to 'give it a try'. They did a fine job, as is evident by the large turnout for the other races and all the smiling faces and post-race bantering. The Cat 1,2,3 field was competitive so the race was ultimately a worthwhile event. A simple fix would be to run it as a USAC event. The organization would be better and appease my sense of logic and order.

I have nothing but praise for Sunday's East Village Criterium as it was truly the 'main event' of the weekend. I will post on my races after I get the results and some pictures. Congratulations, however to the Iowa City Cycling Club for their success at the Cat 1/2 event. Adam Price (pictured above on the right at the 2008 Jingle Cross Rock), having ridden off the course into a ditch at Saturday's race, won this event, having been in a two man break with Clark Priebe for most of the race. I decided his misfortune Saturday might have saved his legs for Sunday, and actually been a blessing in disguise. His team mates Dewey Dickey and Jeff Barnes also made the top five.