Sunday Morning - 8am 3/4 Crit
I have never done a Cat 3/4 crit before, and I knew this would be challenging. Racing with them on an easy course would have been hard enough, but we were racing them on a course that was rated one of the top 5 most challenging crit courses in the nation (by Velo news). In less than a mile, the course has 8 corners, a fast downhill with those new brick cross walks all the way down and a brick corner at the bottom to a short flat section, false flat, and then a 90 degree turn to an ~8% grade hill (3/4 of a block in length) to the finish!
Its in the 40's and very windy that morning and we all stand shivering at the line for about 10-15 mins as we wait for cars to be moved from the course. The race was only 25 mins, so I knew it would be fast, but wow! The cold muscles didnt stop some of the stronger riders from sprinting out of the start. The pace was super fast from the gun. The leader was probably on the 3rd corner when I hit the 2nd corner. The field strung out immediately and Im off the pace of the front pack before turn 3.
I find a group of 3 women and we all try to work together. The problem with this course is that it really displays your strengths and weaknesses and makes it very difficult to work with a small group. They dont want to wait for you after the corners if you take it too wide and fall behind and you dont want to wait for them if they cant stay on your wheel on the false flat.... etc. It was hard to keep the group together. Then, you had the hill every lap and it wears on you very quickly. Most laps I stood on the hill since I had to to keep the wheel in front of me. I could hear Bri yelling for me every time I went up the hill - she totally motivated me to keep pushing up that thing! Thanks Bri!
In the end, I was glad I avoided being lapped and managed to get a good group sprint and placed 21st (and had only 3 other 4's in front of me). Again, this showed me how much work I need to do and will keep me motived to train hard! Need more speed work! :)
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