North Delta Crit

Last night the North Delta Crit kicked off BC Superweek. It was a tough 4 turn, 1 km circuit that we raced for 55 minutes plus 5 laps. It was my first race in a few weeks, so I was a little bit nervous going into it. The race started with relentless attacks from the gun. I started at the back and settled into the race rather than try to just move to the front immediately. I have found when you just try to pass everyone in the first 5 laps I may blow up, so I like to settle into races. Winning moves usually do not go until 15-30 minutes into a race, so I have found this to be an effective strategy. After 3 laps I looked back and was last wheel as riders were going out the back. That lit a little bit of a fire under me, and I picked off riders a little more quickly than I normally would have. Evan was covering some moves early. After about 15-20 minutes of racing the pace lulled, so I took this chance to surge to the front. There was a move with all teams represented, so I bridged up to it. However, I dragged the whole field with me. An effort like that makes you pay a price on a course like this, so I had to sit in for 10 minutes or so. During this period Evan and Oliver did a great job covering. With 10-15 minutes to go I tried covering again, but once again brought the whole field with me. After this point Silber and Rally seemed to be controlling the race for a sprint finish. Evan ended up coming 9th in the field sprint. This race was a good effort by our smaller team battling teams of 6 up here. It was one of the toughest crits I have ever done according to the watts, so it was a good way to get thrown back into the fire. We race another crit tonight in Ladner.