Tolero Criterium
Cat 4/5
This is a fun course but with the slight climb every lap and my lack of training in anaerobic zones the past couple months I wasn't expecting much with these races. The plan was to stay near the front and surf the group as needed to conserve energy, and then work for Gary and/or Jimmy in the final laps to give them a good shot at a top 10 finish. For the first time in a race I took forever clipping into my pedals, which resulted in my being at the very back of the group before we'd even completed a lap. That was annoying. I got to work moving forward with the hopes of making it to the front without using too much extra energy, which was harder than normal because the course is short and narrow in some spots, sort of forcing the only "move up" area to be on the climb -- which is where I didn't want to spend extra energy.
I was able to move up here and there, 1 or 2 spots per lap, but with such a large field it took pretty much the entire race to get within 5 spots of the front. With a few laps to go I found Gary and told him to get on my wheel. On the bell lap I planned on burning a nice big match -- hopefully giving Gary a nice springboard to launch from. Unfortunately, a rider went down in the dumpster corner and I had to scrub a lot of speed to avoid joining him. That effectively ended our race so we just sat up and rolled to the finish. I was happy though that my legs weren't completely wasted.
Masters 35+
Different race, basically the same plan. This time I was able to clip in correctly, which was nice. The pace was fast but I felt comfortable enough. At some point (about halfway through I think) Gary was starting to fade a bit and there was a gap from him to the main group. I moved up to fill the gap for him and politely encouraged him to continue the rotation of his pedals (read: I yelled at him). I spent a few laps surfing between the group and Gary, trying to tow him back up in contact with them. We made it a couple times but when the big surges came he fell back off and spent a lot of energy without a draft. I sat back up and waited for him, then tried my best to give him a consistent steady strong pace that would not shell him, but would be enough to drop the other riders that were on his wheel. It worked and we ended up alone together, 10 seconds or so behind the front group, and 10 seconds or so ahead of the guys behind us. I may have yelled at him a couple more times, or maybe a dozen -- which may or may not have been captured on video and posted to Facebook. I have no way of knowing because I don't know what a Facebook is.
With 2 laps to go I felt reasonably sure we wouldn't get caught by the guys behind us and I also felt that unless I dropped my power output by 50 watts I would puke all over Gary... so I peeled off and (politely encouraged) Gary to keep pushing hard to the finish. Fun race, didn't puke (thumbs up).
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| Buzz working for Gary (photo by Damion Alexander) |
Avondale Criterium
Cat 4
I really liked this course last year. It's fast and smooth and I had some great finishes. I was expecting similar racing, even though they changed it up a bit and ran the course backwards. Oddly enough though, the race surged a lot, which was annoying especially since with the new direction I think we really could have flown through those corners. I stayed near the front and nothing much happened except getting to watch Michael go after some primes with some impressive flyers.
With 3 laps to go I was getting frustrated with all the surging so I decided to try to prompt the front riders to start stringing things out in preparation for the final lap. I pulled for about half a lap and then peeled off hoping to have more guys pull through to continue the pace. They didn't, which deflated me desire to stay in position and I ended up just drifting to the back of the pack. Kind of a frustrating race because I know it could have been a lot faster / fun. Oh well.
Cat 3/4
I was alone for this race which was a bit of a bummer for me because I really like racing with my teammates, but it was also nice to just kind of do my own thing. The pace was strong and hard and fast but then we would have the same surging that we had in the 4's race (very annoying). But when the pace picked back up man it was rough. Really rough. More than a couple times I came very close to peeling off and sitting up to go home. I don't know who it was, but there was one spectator that would call out my name every other lap or so and that really helped keep me motivated to push on. Whoever you are, thanks!
I was in a decent position with a handful of laps to go but after a couple more surges I ended up around 20 guys back and with just 1 lap left I didn't have much hope for a top 10 finish, but I poured every ounce of energy I had left into moving past guys. I was able to get 15th and was happy with that.
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| Buzz during the Cat 4 race (photo by Christy Camera Photography) |
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