As I peered at the ominous skies and threatening weather outside the Pizza Ranch in Marshalltown Iowa...my barely edible meal became just that much more unappetizing... criterium racing in the rain is less than ideal. There is no way around the simple fact that more crashes are likely to happen in wet conditions then in dry conditions, so I always tend to prefer dry conditions.
Anyway, it was raining so violently I thought the race was sure to be cancelled (whew, what a relief), but the skies began to clear and I couldn't stand the thought of the race going on without me so I rode over to State Center and kept things positive.
Waiting for the Cat 4's to finish, they wiped out hard on the last corner of the final sprint as a large number of the Cat 1/2/3's were observed while waiting to enter the course for warm-ups. I heard the comment "that is why I like racing with the master's, we all have to go to work in the morning and have responsibilities to think about"... Ok, the entrants in my race are technically more skilled/experienced then cat 4's so I didn't really stress it.
Anyway, this race really is a good time, rain or shine, so about 30 of us cautiously negotiated this 6 corner crit. Overall, it would have been much faster in dry conditions, but it did get faster as we got a feel for the corners.
A crash went down in front of me toward the second half of the race, and I narrowly navigated around it... Alright, what are the odds of me nearly getting mixed up in a crash twice in one race? Not likely, should be good to go.
Team Zealous had the most 'cards' to play and attacked and counter attacked. I tried my luck at joining some of the attacks, hoping that the rest of the field would let me go with the Zealous guy (usually Jared Osterloh, or Jerome Rewerts). Unfortunately, it always got brought back in, but I kept trying for quite a few laps.
Well, with everything all back together the race was coming down to a sprint. The guys who were playing it "smart" (something I plan on trying one of these races, not sure) by sitting in as much as possible to conserve energy quickly rolled around me until I was in about 9th position heading into the final turn.
Yikes.... all sorts of carnage presented itself in front of me... I quickly assessed the situation and decided to launch into a resident's yard, seeing that I could hop my front wheel over the curb... only problem is that my back wheel hit hard... "pop"... tire blown and back wheel severely cracked. HED has a lifetime crash replacement, so I won't have to pay the entire cost of a new wheel, but still an expensive situation. I had fun, til the end, and will be back again next year as the colorbiotics team and town of state center (rose festival) are a good combo.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment