This past weekend was the Tour De Syracuse which involved a criterium, time trial and road race. Overall, the races went ok, no great results, but good to get an additional 80 miles of racing in my legs, which will hopefully pay off down the road this season. I felt very good in the TT and road race yesterday, just couldn't quite put it together in the final sprint in the road race. It was a fun and eventful weekend for the team as well, which I'm going to try to write about in more detail on the team page in the next few days, once the organizers of the event publish accurate results.
I also competed in a GVCC criterium last week Tuesday. Criteriums (crit for short) are typically run on a course about 1 mile in length and the riders typically race for a given amount of time (typically an hour or so) and then are given a "laps to go" number and race to the finish. Typically riders who do well in crits are good sprinters, handle their bikes very well in and out of corners, and are good at fighting for position in the pack. Since I have none of these qualities as a bike rider currently, it's not exactly the type of race that's in my wheelhouse. However, I would like to improve on these items, and I figure that I'm not going to get better at crits by avoiding them. Below are some pics from the Tuesday crit courtesy of our friends at Twin Line Velo who were marshaling the race.
I'm on the right in the black Monroe Extinguisher's jersey. As you can see, I haven't quite mastered the "hat underneath the helmet" look as my helmet looks all cock-eyed.
But apparently I do have the ability to ride crits with my eyes closed. (me on the left, Rick driving the pace hard on the right).These were my first two crits since the Rochester twilight crit two years ago, where I got completely shelled. The Tuesday night crit was probably 25 riders or so, so a very reasonably sized group to move around in. The Syracuse crit was 77 riders strong at the start and I had forgotten how chaotic crits of that size can get. You're constantly fighting for position and it's almost impossible to pass people other than by taking aggressive lines in corners or risks on downhills. The Syracuse course was especially challenging as there was only one small gradual hill, which might have been an opportunity for me to move up in the group, except every time we hit the hill, it was 7 riders wide, so I couldn't get around anyone. Then we'd crest the hill and bomb down this downhill with a decently sharp left-hand bend where you had to break for guys in front of you, then chase to stay with the lead group, then repeat all that over and over again (20 times to be exact).
Oh, and crashes, those happen a lot in crits. One of my teammates avoided a crash by bunny-hopping the curb and riding in the grass for a while (excellent bike-handling), but by the time he got back onto the pavement, the lead group was up the road, and he was off the back, race over. I managed to stay in the group and avoid two crashes, but never got anywhere near the front of the race. It was pretty frustrating and stressful 22 miles of racing. Maybe it's a mental thing, but I was racing to avoid crashes and to keep the rubber side down and not racing to win, which is how you end up riding at the back of the group the entire race and finishing 54th. Anyways, it was good to get through that, and hopefully I'll feel a little more comfortable the next time I toe the line in a crit. Riding towards the front of the group and paying attention to where I am in the pack are both things I need to work on in road races, so I think that more crit experience might help with that.
We'll see, in two weeks, I have a road race and two crits in Rochester, so it looks like I'll be getting plenty of experience in.
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