cascade crit
downtown bend crit last night.
this race is known for being fast and intense. the prizes are good, ranging from $20 (don't blow it for that!) to $500. i'm not sure what the win was worth. the crowd is huge. the rain dampened the crowd a bit this year, but i imagine that there were still several thousand folks there. in the last laps all i could hear was the deafening roar. it was incredible! the course is "L"-shaped and relatively open. the women were reporting that the course was "like ice" and that the freshly painted stripes were slick (which they typically are). i think laps were taking just a bit more than a minute a piece. there were only 76 riders lining up, down from more than 100 starters. owen was lined up right in the front. i was in the third row. damn. good starts are crucial in these crits. being at the back means lots of hard work as the accordion effect is brutal back there. well, my start was grossly stymied by a navigators guy who couldn't find his pedal and swerved severely in front of me. the first few laps were quite tentative as the health net guys, who were on the front, took it easy. things sped up however as the racers realized that the course was not in fact "like ice". unfortunately i was cautious as well and didn't use that as a chance to move up. in fact, for the first half of the race, i was far too heavy on my brakes and was taking some pretty bad lines, making my life difficult. about half way through, i realized that i didn't in fact need to brake at all and that i was also getting incredible traction. i began taking risks, which rewarded me. i was running michelin pro grip tires and had the confidence to take lines like it was dry. i found that i could take that super fast outside line and pass easily. all this culminated with me suddenly finding myself near the front and the race was suddenly a whole lot easier. in fact, it felt like a local race. what a difference position makes! things were tough though because it had been seriously raining for the bulk of the race and i was actually getting cold. i was glad that i'd worn an undershirt! i was really wishing for arm warmers as well. in fact, i couldn't even feel my hands!. i also couldn't see much. i had yellow lenses on (i couldn't get the clear ones into the frames) and they were covered with water and grime. it was also dark. they had lights in some sections, but the reflections made it difficult for me to see. in some ways, this was good because i cornered more efficiently not knowing that i was only millimeters away from the guy in front of me. but it made it difficult for me to judge how much the guys in front of me were slowing. i got pretty confused in the last fives laps. i thought i heard three to go, and i was sitting pretty sweet. it apparently wasn't and i had no idea how many to go. tom was a few riders in front of me and made a strong move up and claimed 11th on the stage. i came in at 18th. i'm happy with that finish.
today is the circuit race. 13 mile circuit that we do some 6 times for about 80 miles. there's a wall in it. the wall isn't so bad, but the couple miles of gentle rising afterwards can really finish a rider off! i lasted about 65 miles in this race last year before coming off. i expect to make it the whole way this time. if there's a break that i can get into, i'll do that for sure. breaks often take those sorts of obstacles at a more reasonable pace while keeping its speed up on other portions of the course to stay away from the pack. that would certainly suit me well.
