Original Merced Criterium – E5 Race Report

In the past, I have made the mistake of not warming up enough (or at all) before a race. Not this time! I got on the trainer 50 minutes before the scheduled start, planning to do 30 minutes of warmup, giving me 20 minutes to change, eat, and pre-ride the course. Surprisingly, everything went as planned. I did some high-cadence efforts and a few 15 second hard efforts to get my heart going, and the last 10 minutes were pure spinning. The weather was chilly and overcast. I warmed up in leg and arm warmers, long finger gloves, and a beanie. I took off the leg warmers and gloves off for the race and put on short finger gloves. The beanie got replaced with my (super recognizable) blue helmet.

I got over to the start line, and looking at the (relatively small, 19 people) pack, I picked out the people that i judged to be strong/ good wheels to follow. This judgment was reached by an analysis of the riders bike, how “pro” they looked, and what team they were on. The two that stood out to me was a rider from Mike’s Bikes and another from Audi. A few unattached riders also stood out as strong riders.

The ref announced that there would be one neutral lap, due to the previous race taking too long, not leaving us any time to take a look at the course. The mentor had his usual talk about protecting front wheels and holding our lines when we sprint. I got into a good position at the start line  in the front/middle of the pack. The whistle blew and we were off on a slowish neutral lap.

A bit about the course: its a rectangular course, with a small twist. The start/finish is in the middle of a long straightaway with plenty of botts dots. the first corner is a 90 degree right turn with smooth cement on the inside of the corner- very smooth and easy to take at high speed (this did not stop some of the new racers from taking some wacky lines). The second straightaway is short, with just enough space to set up for the second turn. the second turn is also a 90 degree right turn, but it goes from wide, 2 lane road, to narrow, one lane road with curbs on both sides. The “back” straightaway was similar to the front, but much narrower and with fewer dots. Here comes the unusual part: the third turn is a loop around the local courthouse, almost like going clockwise around a roundabout to make a right. It starts with a slight left turn with a pothole in the middle. This then turns right into a narrow passage with a wall on the outside. This is followed by a bumpy right-left, a very short straight, and a 90 degree right back onto the finishing straight.

Neutral lap out of the way, the race had begun. The pace kicked up to about 25 as we went through the first turn. the next 15 minutes were relatively slow and uneventful. the pace was steady and i decided to attack just for the hell of it. This was the first crit of the season and i was about 10x stronger than i was last year, so I thought I could make the other riders hurt a bit. I went hard into the loop, knowing that i could take the narrow section much faster than the pack. I stayed clear and got a small gap, but was caught in about 15 seconds. No big deal, got back into the pack, recovered, repeated the whole thing a few laps later. This time. the rider from Mike’s Bikes went with me and we got a bit further, but were still caught very quickly. Lap cards showed up, and the rest of the race went by pretty calmly. Some riders had close calls with the curb on corner 2, a few people tried to attack, but nothing out of the ordinary. With 3 laps to go, the pack was going too slowly so I decided to spice it up a bit and attacked into corner 1. i looked back on the back straightaway and couldn’t see them (or maybe my vision was blurred from all the sweat on my face). I was a bit surprised as I would imagine most riders wouldn’t let even a small gap open this late into a race. I got caught right at the finish line with 2 to go. got back in the pack(which was significantly smaller and faster now), and recovered for the finish. The rest of the lap was uneventful. We went by the finish line for the penultimate time, and heard the bells. as we went through the first 2 turns, the pace started to pick up but nothing significant. I was able to stay towards the front on the back straightaway until a group of 4 attacked into the narrow part of the loop. I tried to chase, but they had opened up a gap and they were clear. I went through corner 4 right behind another rider, and put in a sloppy sprint for 5th place. The rider from MB took 1st and the Audi rider took 2nd. it seems my judgement was spot on!

This was my first good finish in a race, and i have already put in for an upgrade to cat4!