Hanford Criterium

The Course
The Crit took place on a cold windy day in the middle of small Downtown Hanford.  I entered M35 Cat 4/5 which was a 30 looper on a flat 0.8 mile Hourglass Style course.
What is an Hourglass Style Course?   After a short start/finish straight, turn 90 deg (1) left, (2) right, (3) right, (4) right, (5) left, (6) right, (7) right & (8) right.  Yeah.  I thought Crits were four right turns too.

The Race
For the first few laps the field promenaded around the course to get familiarize with the layout.  The course was in great condition.  The pavement was dry, smooth, and had minimal amount of botts dots.  My first impression was how difficult was it going to be to find a save passing opportunity when the straights were only one small downtown city block long.  The other thing on my mind was the eight 90 degree turn on some narrow streets.
The race was pretty uneventful.  Know one crashed, dropped water bottle, made any strange manoeuvres, or even yelled at each other.  The pace wasn’t really all that fast either.  I think the wind and constants turn had something to do with that, but also maybe some were just saving a little to try to get a Leader Prize.  I believe they gave away prizes for the leader of 15, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 laps to go.  I wasn’t interested on killing myself for a Free Gift card for some little bath & soap shop in the small town Hanford (kidding),  so I just sat mid pack, and let the other have fun.  With one lap to go I started to move towards the front.  It ended up being easier then I thought.  Most of the field were taking a conservative approach through the turn.  Brake early, stay in the middle, etc, etc.  This gave me a clear paths on the inside and outside of each approaching turn, and I move quickly to 5th wheel.  With a strong head wind between turns 6 & 7 the field started to get strung out.  I felt great, but decided not to go attack to early (learn my lesson from EB #4).  I waited til turn 8, and was able to sprint to a 2nd place.

After the finish I rolled back to the car to see if my son enjoy watching his dad race.  He didn’t even catch the end.  He was to busy playing with his I-Phone.  Kids now a day..
A quick clean-up and back to the registration area to check the results.  On the way my son had to go Pee really bad.  I knew he had to go bad, cuz he was locked in the car the entire time I was warming up and racing.  Unfortunately the 2 Potto of Pottys had long lines and I miss my Podium opportunity, but still got a t-shirt and $50 buck for the 2nd place :)…

John L