Thrusday Night Crit

Today I decided to tackle a cat4/5 crit at the Irvine Great Park. Upon arrival, I realized that this going to be fun. Plenty of riders showed up and the old Air Strip made a perfect stage for some good racing. I paid my $15 and picked up my numbers. I couldn't get much info from the staff on how the preems would work so I just decided to play it by ear. My plan was to just lay back in pack for a few laps to get the turns down and make sure I could handle the pace. I really did not know what to expect other than we should hear/see a bell at some point in the race indicating that the next lap was for points. I do remembering them mentioning that they would hold up a card when there is 2 laps to go.

As we prepared to start they lined up the Pros, Cat4/5, Masters, Cat1/2/3. As I looked around I noticed the pros/cat1s did not have that typical sub 120lbs TOF GC human skeleton build. Most of them had quads like tree stumps and some upper body as well. Power wins sprints and crits. Rich and Adrian would definitely fit in. My class was a mixed bag of kitted riders and joe blows like me.

Rule#1
Don't miss the preem bell as you won't be prepared for chaos that ensues over the next mile.

Rule#2
Don't miss the break that will most likely happen after the preem lap completes.

The race starts and I am sitting 6-7th wheel out of ~30 riders. The pace starts out at an easy 20-22 mph. I have a lot of teams pushing me out of the line so I have to constantly jockey for a spot. The easy pace holds for 2 more laps an then a riders decides it is time to test the field. We tick up to 25-28. I move up to 4th wheel and start getting a little nervous that this pace will lift. We hold the pace for 2-3 more laps and this creates some attrition. The rider who is making the pace decides it is time for someone else to do the work. At this point everyone just starts soft pedaling and I am thinking, "no way I am getting in front as I don't even have the turns memorized". Finally, a team comes through and lifts the pace. The pack is now down to ~15 riders. As we get close to completing the lap the pace lifts to 30+ and I am like "WTF, I did hear/see a bell on the last lap?". I decide to lay back thinking some JA is just killing himself for no reason and quickly realize that me and 4 others are being dropped. Who is the JA now? After they cross the line, I realize, "crap, that must of been a preem". They start to soft pedal and I am hoping that they just were going for the preem, but I soon as I think that I see a guy shoot off the front. Damn, I am off the back with 4 others. At this point I though everyone would work together to bridge the gap, wrong! Everyone rode like they were alone and just tried to bridge the gap solo creating insane upticks in pace that ended up killing everyone. It was like Adrian was pulling had 3 twin brothers to follow him up. At this point, I really missed the team. The gap was only 200 meters and were a dysfunctional grupetto. Me and another rider were the only 2 standing after the antics. We tried like crazy to close the 200 meters for like 3 more laps and finally had to tempo down and preserve. We worked well together. His pulls were faster than mine, but he would blowup after them and sit on my wheel to recoup. It worked and we ended picking off 5 more riders that fell off the lead group. The lead group was now only 7. This put us at 8,9, and 10th(we picked up a rider that fell back from the break). As we came to final lap, I let the 2 guys go for the sprint as I did not have anything left. Finished off 10th and felt good to be done! If you think are lunch rides are jerky and chaotic, this will definitely set you back some. 2x Portola. Big adrenaline rush and there is no way I missing the preems or breakaways next week! I really think that we have some riders that could hang with the sprints and create/close gaps.

Shannon suprised me at the finish line (and during the race taking pics) with some beers and words of encouragement. Peronis were tasty, Thanks Shannon!

Pictures from Shannon: