After Stanford's Crit, I felt a lot more confident with my endurance and skills in a Crit so I was actually looking forward to this one, especially because of the slight incline. We only had under 30 riders in the field, and I was again joined by Christian, Eric, and Bryan. I still had a lot of legs left despite yesterday's tough race, so I had good feelings for this race. The race was 35 minutes around a course that took only under 1 minute to complete.
The Start:
Right from the whistle, the pack went hard. Bryan led the pace for the first 3 laps and I stayed in the front hanging on tight. Couldn't believe how tired I was getting so quickly even after recovering from the descending straight. It was an interesting race as we had to dodge two potholes on turn 3 so everyone except inattentive riders took the same line. Turn 3 to 4 was also bumpy and manhole covers ruined the perfect line, sometimes I would take the outside AKA a really horrible line. But for the first 10 laps or so I was struggling to keep the pace and made gaps in the corner as I was concerned about aggressively tackling the rough surface on what was the fastest corner of the course.
Halfway Point of Race:
I was getting a hang of the course, and the pace seemed to decrease. A large portion of the field had already dropped out or had been asked to leave the race, including Bryan who got sick from a Bagel eaten before the race, so he was on the Sidelines cheering across from Ben and Nia. Eric made a nice move from the side and made his way to the front where he set a nice pace to drop more of the weaker riders. Rex Roberts (CSULB) and some Cal and Davis riders also took the front. But the halfway point was really a glory period with nothing major.
Final Laps and End:
Lap Cards were shown at 8-to-go. Lap Cards?! I saw them and I surged from the left side and the field began to yell out my move. I only went 85% of a full attack and wasn't feeling totally good but felt confident anyways. After an uneventful lap, at 6-to-go I attacked and a Stanford Rider followed, I worked with him especially on the downhill where I recovered and got momentum, but I was pulling up the hill, and he couldn't hang on so with 5-to-go I went to time-trial mode. Eric and Christian covered the field but Rex Roberts quickly read it so he prevented any measures of me soloing for the win, as he worked with other teammates to reel me in. With 4 to go then 3 to go, I felt I could make it but I felt I lost a lot of time cornering. With 1.5 laps to go (2nd to last lap) they catch me and I hang on to the front. Surprisingly on bell lap, the pace only slightly increases so I was able to hang on in the front, had a good position in the front for the final sprint but was way too far as Rex had started strong and early. He takes the win with some Davis, Stanford, and Cal guys following and I come in 8th, getting my first ever Top 10 in a Criterium, with Christian 9th and Eric 11th! Update: I just found out that only 12 of us finished out of about 21 guys! I guess the race was that hard!
Great weekend for the Men's C and also Nia Ransom in the Women's C Crit won her race as she lapped the C's and technically Podium'd with the B's!
--D
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