Little Crit

Hi.

On The Way To The Metro

After getting humbled by last weekend's racing and last week's work schedule, I kept it light this week and went to the CBR 100k Dominguez hills crit. There was a road race option further south. We would....but we're not. Three bearclaws lined up. And about 40 other racers. Tiny field for this low-pro crit. Small fields change the dynamic of crits. Fewer places to hide. Less room to recover after a hard effort, less horsepower in the field if a break gets clear, etc etc. I don't like it. It's harder in many respects, and also a bit more dull. Also, they shortened the race from 100k to 90 minutes (which is about 30 minutes off anyway, not a huge deal...though i'd rather go long). Anyhow, plan was to have one rider hang out, and the other two to be aggressive. I'm not good at the hanging out bit, so opted to be the aggressor hrrrrr. Made a couple of "fake digs" that got the field going. Didn't feel stellar, but the feeling was getting better with each passing lap. Took a prime. That was good. Recovered real quick. Nice. Shortly afterward the race was in pieces. 4 actually. And I was in #4. Hmmm. Before things got out of hand, I bridged to #3 alone. While here, a couple SDBC guys (to whom I gifted a win a couple months ago) had their heads down trying to close the gap. At this point 2 and 3 merged, with all of the strong guys pulling away in #1...but still in sight. As soon as the sdbc guy pulled off, I attacked, alone, and got across. The first reassuring thing that's happened to me in racing for quite some time.

So the break was established. 10 guys. Had teammates shutting down behind, and the gap grew and grew. Of the 10, I know I could out-sprint 8 (on a bad day). We lapped the field. I wanted to go again, but no one else did. The complications of sprinting when you're a lap up. Eh. Best avoided and sooooooo much classier to win when you attack again. I tried, but nope. Last lap comes, I told my teammate to sweep my wheel. My other teammate helped me get to the front as we started the last lap. Things were going well...

I finished 10th out of the break.

My seatpost broke in turn 4.

C'est la vie...