I've only been involved with MTB a couple years and this is my first year Road Racing.
I made it out to the 'B' Crit last night.Was a small crowd of around 20 riders. Race was around 20 minutes plus 5 laps. Ross made it a point/sprint night and would occasionally ring a bell at the start/finish line to indicate the next lap was a sprint lap. Points were 5/ for 1st and 2nd.
Course was the old course that they used for 15 years, so I was told. This would be turn 3 not at the warm up lap first corner but the second corner, which is at the stop sign.
I have had only 1 ride since the Aug 22 24hr MTB race. Was feeling pretty good all things considered. I was the lone Euro-Sport rep There was a decent head wind on the start/finish leg which would make it interesting on the sprints.
On the first sprint lap I was pretty much at the back. I pedaled through all corners unless someone in front of me was slowing. I had some decent speed sprinting out of corner 4 corner so for some silly reason I kept sprinting. I managed come come from the back up to 4th, and I was inside the rear wheel of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I was pretty stoked as I was in the wind all the way from corner 4.Ross had instructed everyone to regroup after the sprint so I sat up to recover. After the recovery lap, if you could call it that as the speed didn't drop much, I got popped off the back! Doh! So much for being stoked haha.
After one more lap for me I was recovered but the group was close to being out of site. One rider that was also off the back caught me so I jumped his wheel for a lap. By now I was fully recovered and the two of us took half lap pulls for a couple laps then Allen jumped on with us. We did about two laps like this and then the group was on us with perfect timing down the front straight. I jumped back in only to have the bell rung. Great! SoI managed to hang on to the group until the last lap.
I learned a lesson last night. If you know you are not the strongest rider and are just hoping to stay with the group til the end, don't do a mega first sprint ! ! ! or get into a good position on the first sprint and lay it all on the line for your one minute of glory Was a fun night and the temp was perfect for racing. I am hoping to make it out to the next two and final crits as they are 'OPEN' crits.
Last races of the season so hope to see ya all there
Cheers,
Paul
