Saturday, August 05, 2006

Charlotte Coliseum Cat 2,3 Crit

Today was the Charlotte Coliseum parking lot cat 2, 3 crit. It was a pretty tough course with 4 corners, and it was about 1k long. It was uphill from turn one to turn three. Then it was downhill to turn four and about 100 meters uphill to the finish line. There were about fifty starters, and the race was supposed to last fifty minutes. For the first twenty minutes I just sat in the field. Then I started to get tired, and other people were attacking so I figured it would be a good time to attack. I was off the front for about three laps with different people coming up to me and dropping back to the field, and eventually two guys got with me that stuck. We immediately got a gap of about 10-12 seconds. We were told we had 18 laps to go. The gap remained the same to the field until about five laps to go when it went up to twenty seconds. A fourth guy bridged up to our group at around this time and with two laps to go attacked. I wasn’t expecting it and hesitated, so that was it for first. During the last lap I tried to bring the guy back in vain. Then another rider attacked on the downhill, and I just followed him thinking I could pass him after the last turn. But I couldn’t come around him and rolled in for third. All in all it was a good day, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow because I am riding well, and the course is supposed to be tough.

Charlotte Coliseum Cat 2,3 Crit

Today was the Charlotte Coliseum parking lot cat 2, 3 crit. It was a pretty tough course with 4 corners, and it was about 1k long. It was uphill from turn one to turn three. Then it was downhill to turn four and about 100 meters uphill to the finish line. There were about fifty starters, and the race was supposed to last fifty minutes. For the first twenty minutes I just sat in the field. Then I started to get tired, and other people were attacking so I figured it would be a good time to attack. I was off the front for about three laps with different people coming up to me and dropping back to the field, and eventually two guys got with me that stuck. We immediately got a gap of about 10-12 seconds. We were told we had 18 laps to go. The gap remained the same to the field until about five laps to go when it went up to twenty seconds. A fourth guy bridged up to our group at around this time and with two laps to go attacked. I wasn’t expecting it and hesitated, so that was it for first. During the last lap I tried to bring the guy back in vain. Then another rider attacked on the downhill, and I just followed him thinking I could pass him after the last turn. But I couldn’t come around him and rolled in for third. All in all it was a good day, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow because I am riding well, and the course is supposed to be tough.

Statesville, NC Cat 2,3 Crit

Today was my first race back after about a month break off the bike. It was a cat 2,3 crit in Statesville, NC (near Charlotte). The course was about one k long and shaped like an L. All the turns were 90 degrees. The first turn being left and slightly downhill into another left that kicked uphill, to a right, left downhill again to a long flat straight, to the final left about 150 meters before a slight uphill kick to the line. The race was to be 45 minutes long, and I started at the back, which didn't really matter on this course because how fast it was. I just pretty much spent the first thirty minutes of the race doing nothing. I never panicked and just moved up through the pack during turns and whenever there was a reprieve in the pace. It didn't really appear that any breaks would stick just because of how fast the race was, so I didn't try anything. I just made sure I was in good positioning in the top five in the last five laps. There was one guy off the front by like 15 seconds during the last few laps, and I just sat in taking a gamble he would get caught. With three laps to go the pace let up a bit I guess and I got swarmed by about ten guys. Then the guys at the front were drilling it, and there was really nowhere for me to move up because it was fast in the turns, and it took a lot of energy to move up on the two long straights there were. The guy off the front got caught half a lap to go. I managed to get to the last turn about tenth, way too far back. I ended up passing a few people before the line and took seventh. It was pretty decent for my first race back, but we will see what tomorrow brings.