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| Cleaning Glasses Before the Start |
“Let’s kick off racing in 2012” were my final words before
the whistle blew starting the Burnham Super Spring Criterium on Saturday (3/24). I was lined up in my first Cat 3 race and
feeling a bit nervous despite a long winter of training. I knew many of the guys on the start line but
there were also a lot of new faces I didn’t recognize. That always makes it hard when you don’t know
who to mark or who to watch out for. It
was really nice to chat with some old friends at the start line that I hadn’t
seen for a whole winter but when the whistle blew it was game on!
The nerves for these events are not really about performance
but the utter pain that the next hour is going to be. From the moment the race started and my heart
rate went from 60 to 180 in about 10 seconds this race was on a new level. Not only was the pace faster but the teams
were more organized and all the riders were much more experienced at spotting
when and where to make the right moves.
Overall this made the margin of error very small and the increased my focus
and attention to the race as it unfolded.
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| A few attacks off the front never materialzed |
The Burnham course is very easy. It’s basically a large oval with wide
sweeping turns and no hard corners. A
bike racers dream… However, the lack of technicality creates a new tactic all
by itself. You can’t bank on making
moves at critical times in this course.
You can move to the front or back at almost any time throughout the
race. As the first few laps unfolded I
sat in the pack judging the other riders, the wind, and the conditions to
determine what was going to make the difference in this race. After a few minutes I concluded what I have
for the past three years. This race will
come down to a pack sprint.
As the laps ticked by the pace remained high but all the
riders rode comfortably and without any incident. I was surprised at how aggressive some of the
moves were early but no one made any attempt to attack or put riders up the
road. As the lap counter signaled 3 to
go I moved up into the first 15 places and began to pace myself for the
sprint. The pace increased steadily and
with two laps to go I was in great position in the top 10. However at the start of the last lap a rider
in front of me suddenly braked hard and I also had to brake and swerve to avoid
a crash. The slowing was due to the
riders at the front all wanting to rest and recover briefly before the final
push to the end.
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| Cat 3 Finish (white arrow is me) |
But this sudden and unexpected brake and swerve caused the
riders behind to surge and come around those in the front and I was swamped
instantly by 20+ riders going from top 5 to 30th in seconds. From then on it was a struggle to gain back
the original position… the push was on to be in the top 10 on the final
spring. When we finally went around the
last corner I was in no better position.
Trying to find a line to sprint through 20 riders was nearly impossible
and when a dude leaned over and puked right in my line I knew it was over. I did manage pick a line and get a decent
sprint to put me just out of the top 20
finishing 21 overall. But the margin
of 1 to 20 was very narrow and probably no more than a second or two.
Overall the race was a success and I did accomplish my goals
of the race to test my fitness and get the Cat 3 monkey off my back. I know this season is going to be great, my
fitness needs to improve a little but overall I felt really good and am looking
forward to the next big challenge down in Hillsboro on 4/14.
FULL RACE DATA HERE
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