Last weekend, 3 of 4 Sammy’s riders (Dustin, Sean, and yours
truly) headed to Kalamazoo MI early Saturday morning for a Criterium held on the campus of
Western Michigan University followed by a road race Sunday morning in the
nearby city of Lawton MI.
I raced in these events last year as a CAT3 and good results
aside I really enjoyed getting away and mixing it up with riders I didn’t know
and who especially didn’t know me.
The Criterium course is rather large but straight forward,
the start finish is just after a road fly over and thus is partly downhill and immediately
leads you into a chicane. The first right turn of the course was a bit rough as
you had to sweep way left and cut right hard in order to keep your speed and
hit the raised driveway curb transition as straight on as possible. This road transition facilitated a nasty crash
at the front of the group late in the race but for the most part was navigated safely.
The back stretch of the course was largely exposed to cross/ head winds sweeping
off the nearby highway and caused consolidation of the group most laps. The
course finished with a wide right turn again with another driveway transition
(much smoother than turn #1) and quick uphill pull over the road flyover and
down into the start finish.
To the race…
At the line it was obvious that three teams had serious
numbers, Priority Health, Bissell, and one other team in green kits that supposedly
had a former national elite Criterium champ on it. The race starts unusually
fast for an elite event but none the less as I get reacquainted with the
corners I am relatively pleased with my positioning thru the first 10 laps. 35
min down and the bunch is surprisingly still together, after the leaders chased
down three more escapees I noticed a slight slowdown in the pace and an opportunity
to attack in hopes I could stay away long enough to collect on the midway cash
prime.
From 6th wheel I jumped out and nailed it for
15-20 seconds before I looked back to see plenty of daylight behind me. Ok
great! I knew my team mates would do their best to block and I would have to
settle into a sustainable pace if I was going to last more than 2 laps. After 3
times around I noticed a single rider off the front coming across to me, good
for our odds of staying away but bad for the cash prime coming up in 2 laps.
After the chaser made my wheel I asked him if he wanted the
cash or if he wanted to say away? He said “both” yes, it was a stupid question
I know but at the time I was optimistic of our chances for the win and if we
crushed each other for the prime we could kiss our break goodbye. So we agreed
to split the cash and keep our pace consistent. Looking back I should have
known that two nonmembers of the power house teams on a flat open course stood
no chance of staying away for 45 min and I should have kept my mouth shut and destroyed
the guy in the sprint, another lesson learned.
Not more than half a lap after grabbing the prime the two of
us were reeled back and Dustin joined a good looking break of about 6 riders,
after recovering from my effort I moved back to the front and did my best to
slow things down. With a few laps left it was obvious that Priority Health was
organizing a serious chase/lead out train that was pulling the break back very
quickly.
With half a lap left I was sitting 20th or so
(way too far back) when we caught Dustin and the break.
Sean managed to
position himself much higher in the lead out and sprinted to 6th
place behind some seriously organized riders.
All said and done Sean and I finished in the $ and along
with my prime we covered our travel expenses and dinner out at the Kalamazoo
Beer Exchange, good times.
Big shout out to Meg for letting Dusting and I crash your place!
Sunday…
After couch surfing in Kalamazoo for the night we had a
short drive over the Lawton MI for the start of our p1/2 race. Our race was 30
or so riders and without surprise Bissell and Priority Health showed up in
numbers.
The course was a 13 mile rolling course with 3 kicker hills
of note, the P1/2 was scheduled for 6 laps 78 miles total.
The race started with a quick acceleration from the front
followed by some halfhearted attacks from solo riders. This is the part of the
race that I need to be more heads up, I am learning more and more how flipping
important it is to see the composition of the attack before it can really establish
its self because if you get left out of the move and the two strong teams have
representation in the break consider yourself hosed.
A few miles into lap two 3 riders got off the font and out
of sight pretty quickly. On the back side of the course I was pretty frustrated
for being left out of the move and looking for a good time to attack.
Dustin
must have read my mind because he strung the field out nice and thin with yours
truly in 5th wheel. The second he started to slow I was down
shifting and on the hunt. For the second time in two days I was off the front
with no shadow, actually unfortunate because I could have really used another
rider to rotate with in search for the 3 man break.
I don’t know how hard the group was chasing or not but I gathered
about 30-40 seconds on the group headed thru the start finish and while keeping
my head down I heard the official give me the time gap to the leaders, 3 min! I
didn’t give up but I certainly lost a lot of motivation to kill myself in chase
since making up a 3 min gap solo on three CAT1’s was not likely in my current
state of fitness. My best bet was to
wait up and see if any solo riders had started to chase me down and I could
join them or just wait for the whole group and try again later.
After soft pedaling for a while and taking in some calories
I was swept up by the group and back in the fold. Almost immediately a group of
6 attacked hard including Dustin that stuck, I was glad Sammy’s finally had representation
in a select group. 40 miles into the race I thought my job was done and started
to relax a bit in the group alongside Sean.
The chase group with Dustin was well up the road and I wasn’t
too worried about the group organizing enough to bring it back. I was sitting
second wheel behind a Bissell rider when he accelerated hard up one of the
hills. I sat on his wheel without too much trouble and before I knew it we had
a gap on the group and he was flicking me thru. At this point I was thinking
that I might as well get a good workout and if anything Dustin could use a good
lead out should the two of us successfully bridge to the break.
The Bissell rider and I worked together seamlessly for two
laps and brought the chase group back into view, I estimated the gap about 30
seconds. It was about this time I noticed a Bissell rider heading backwards
pretty fast. Unfortunately, this was the Bissell rider in the original 3 man
break causing his team mates in the chase to pull hard in hopes to bring back
the Priority Health rider in the now 2 man lead break. In retrospect this was
our last chance to make it to the chase group and in short order the Bissell
riders in the chase pulled the group out of sight within minutes.
My chase partner and I headed into our last lap knowing we
would never catch the chase or the break but certainly didn’t want to be caught
by the group. We rotated evenly for the rest of the lap keeping an eye on our
six to make sure we remained alone. At best we would cross the finish line in
the top 10 so I didn’t think we would beat each other up for the sprint too far
out. Turning into the home straight I was willingly in the front and keeping a
decent pace and the moment I saw him purposely drop my wheel just a tiny bit I laid
into the pedals and took to the finish line first.
The two man break had stayed away with Dustin holding his
own in the chase group sprint, the Bissell rider and I came in 12 and 13th
2 min behind the chase and 3min in front of the group so not a great result but
a valuable workout and learning experience.
After the short drive I was back home in time for a late
lunch!