East Village Criterium 8/13



With a Cat 3 upgrade in sight I was hoping the East Village Criterium would be my last as a 4.  Boy was I wrong!  Going into the race I knew it was going to be tough.  The race was a .7 mile circuit with a 100' climb built in, not leaving much time or distance to recover.  During my warmup laps I realized the wind was coming head on directly into the downhill portion of the course.  I noted that it would make the short recovery period even shorter but I had no idea just how decisive that downhill portion would be.



At the starting line my whole family was there to cheer me on.  My little niece kept saying “on your marks, get set, GO!” it was so cute.  At the gun I had a great start and settled into third wheel easily.  Right away a rider went up the road solo. I had him marked thanks to a helpful tip from a friend, and since no one else wanted to do any work I chased him down (photo).  It took three laps or so for the field to come back together and I was tired after the effort.  I settled into 10th wheel or so to recover.  This turned out to the be the decisive mistake of the race.  A few laps later on the downhill the pace picked up.  In front of me a group of about 12 riders developed a gap.  The riders in front of me failed to close it and a 6 second gap formed.  Shortly later the gap grew to 10 seconds.  By the time I realized what was happening it was to late.  I tried to make the bridge but the group was working really well together and riding fast.  After bringing the gap down to about half I looked to the rider on my left and asked him to finish it off.  He said no and dropped back onto my wheel. 

No one was willing to do any work.  I chased solo with the whole peloton in tow for the remaining 10 laps.  The gap stayed about the same but with about 3 laps remaining they pulled away and I was exhausted.  At the end a few of the riders who had been on my wheel the whole race started to attack me.  No way I said to myself.  On the final climb towards the finish I hit the gas and accelerated.  I didn’t even get out of the saddle and rode them off my wheel.  Coming down the final straight I glanced back and saw no one there.  It was satisfying to know I finished strong even though I was hugely disappointed. 

Chasing down the solo breakaway

It was great to see my whole family afterwords and be talk about the race.  I was disappointed in the result but hardly disappointed in my performance.  It was a good ride and defiantly a challenge.  I look forward to coming back and doing it again next year.

Dad and Lemmy (Kara on the right)