More Weekend Crit Reports

Before I begin, I apologize that I had an error in my last post regarding the crash that I saw at the Melon City Crit involving Bryan Moritz and two other guys. He clears it up in his comment under that blog entry. I thought Bryan was the one that was getting punched at, apparently it was some other guy. The aggressor did get relegated to last place, which seems like a good call by the refs, because we should be able to compete in local crits without fear of getting assaulted. Below is a pic as the crash was unfolding... I am right in the middle of the two fallen riders. Reminds of the picture below from the 2006 Wapello to Burlingto Road Races where I am also seen to the far left of the photo narrowly escaping a crash... ---
QC Crit-
I need a lot more practice doing flat multi-corner crits if I am going to get better at them. I have done around 10 crits total in my racing career, which doesn't seem to measure up to what some of the out of town Cat 3's had under their belt. Since a weekly criterium practice event is out of question, I will simply need to travel to find more crits to compete in. Maybe superweek, maybe st. louis, maybe just switch gears and focus on some other aspect of the sport.

For the race, over 80 Cat 3's lined up. It was fast and furious most of the time, with everyone trying to get nestled in to the front portion of the group. It took me about 10 laps to find any sort of confidence. I did get a feel for the race during the middle portion, once everyone sort of settled down a bit. Then some attacks started to happen, and I sort of did a half-assed attempt to bridge up to one of the solo fliers (I believe Tim Campell of West Liberty).

I got up to him, sort of, but basically brought the group up as well. Unfortunately, I blew a lot of energy during the few laps in the middle that I tried to break free, and join the riders up ahead. This is the luck and/or gambling part of the discipline. If I could have bridged up, worked with the rider(s) ahead and created a strong gap, we all have top finishes. OR- I use precious amounts of power and energy trying this tactic, and then don't have enough left during the last lap to get into the front of the sprint.

Flat muli-corner criteriums are definately a new challenge, that I will evaluate and most likely come up with a plan to do better at them in future efforts.

---

Hilarious... Below is a picture of me at snake alley (photo by bryan moritz family, thanks) climbing up the approach to the 'snake' on the first lap. Notice my eager expression as I am excited to conquer my fear of this race... not knowing that my race would be over in about 20 more seconds.

And a good shot at the melon city crit with the field climbing up the weed park hill.