This was the second of two races for me. After the E4’s I grabbed a banana and some water. To keep the legs warm Erik and I did laps on city streets. Our start time was 9:30am. The 35+4’s raced right before Ryan Phua Memorial Kids’ Ride so the spectator turnout was great. It really made for a super fun atmosphere. They said we had 63 riders for this race. They extra 20 or so riders would definately make it harder to move around in the bunch. I lined up near the back with Erik and Oscar (BBC). Whistle blows and I managed a speedy clip in. Moved up towards the middle of the group and settled in. I wouldn’t say it is hard to move up on this course but it isn’t as straightforward as your standard 4 corner crit. I found I could gain a few spots through the right-left-right sequence as guys would tend to ease up in this section. On turn 5 and the #6 sweeper everyone wanted to move up as this was the most wide open area of the course. It was also the lead into the short finishing straight. The road surface had some surprises also. In the center of turn 3 there is a nice dip at the apex of the center line. It tended to launch your back wheel off the ground if you were driving hard. About halfway through the race my front wheel dropped into a seam on the road. I was able to shift my weight back in time and it didn’t grab. I had visions of a really bad outcome if it did. For the most part it was a smooth race. You always get a few knuckleheads doing stupid things but the older crowd felt safer than the E4’s. With 3 to go I decided to try and move up. Worked my way into the top 20 or so as the bell rang for the last lap. Coming out of turn 3 I’m in a train with Bill from TBS Rob from Taleo and another rider I don’t know on the front driving the pace. We are flying along at around 30 on the outside. Coming up real fast on the front. Turn 4 goes smooth and the guy on the front of our train is probably even with 4th or 5th wheel of the main bunch. We enter turn 5 flat out just hammering. I’m feeling real good slotted 4th wheel not working to hard. Liking my odds against the guys in front of me on the short sprint. Dude on the front over cooks the turn and plows into the curb at full speed. The rest of us were able to scrub off some speed and avoid stacking it. Unfortunately we lost all of our momentum and got passed by a lot of riders. I didn’t contest the sprint and finished 27th. Guess that’s racing. Erik and I talked to the guy who crashed after the race. Had some road rash on an arm and lower leg but his bike was wrecked. Snapped the seat tube on his Giant TCR. Glad he walked away though.
Mike