Rose Festival Twilight Criterium - 6/17

This weekends racing brought me to State Center, Iowa for the Rose Festival Twilight Criterium and Road Race.  After a long drive Friday I arrived just in time to get signed in and warmed up before the 7pm start. My whole family was there to watch and it was great to have a cheering section on every lap.  Temperatures were in the upper 80's and I don't know what the humidity was but I'll just say it was HOT!  Warm up took about 5 minutes to get my heart rate up but the legs weren't feeling so good.  I thought maybe I pushed it a little to hard training this week... Regardless the race wasn't waiting for me.



Waiting for race to start

Lining up was a very small group of riders, but each looked ready to race.  For the first time in a long while I had problems clipping in, and found myself at the back of the pack chasing right from the start.  The pace was fast initially but everyone in the group was cornering well and riding smart which made things much more enjoyable.  After 5 or 6 laps the pace slowed a touch and I was able to move up in the field into a comfortable spot.  Halfway through he race I was really starting to feel the heat.  I went through an entire 20 oz. bottle which is strange for a 40 min. criterium. With about 8 laps to go things started heating up.  Two guys went off the front but only held a 15 second advantage.  We could see them going around each turn and I wrongly assumed the pack would quickly bring them back.  Its hard racing with people you don't recognize because you don't know what their skill level is.  Back home I would have had a better idea of weather or not to chase the breakaway.


Sitting in early in the race

The course was a simple box with an extra left and right corner right after the first turn making a nice 6 turn layout.  The last two turns are on a steady incline and I knew that at race speed it would very hard if not impossible to make up much ground.  In my mind I decided the race would be won or lost on the slight downhill straight between turns 4 and 5 which was the only real area to make up much ground. 

Coming up the home stretch with about 4 to go (The two riders were not the two off the front)

The pace was increasing to the bell lap and as I watched the laps count down I wondered if I could keep the pace.  At the bell I knew we weren't catching the two off the front.  With my family cheering me on and the heart rate increasing to 190 I was firing on all cylinders.  I pushed past the one rider in front of me (seen below) and was out front driving the pace. 

Sitting in 2nd going into the bell lap

Taking good lines on turns 2 and 3 I hit the short straight away before the last final uphill.  I could hear the wheels closing in around me and I drove harder to stay out front.  I took a great line going into the uphill and maintained every bit of speed going into the homestretch.  I buried my head and drove as hard as I could for the last 150m.  I was able to stay off and win the bunch sprint of the small group.  Those two riders stayed off the front the whole time and I thought I had taken third.  After the race I realized another rider had escaped which I missed and gotten lost in the shuffle of lapped riders so I ultimately took 4th overall, just missing my first podium again.  It took the entire cool down lap to bring the heart rate and legs back under control but with the whole family there to watch it was a great effort and a great result.  Race data can be found here.