Intro to Crit Racing

I've done two crit races in the past 2 weeks to start off my first full season of racing, Wells Ave and the Chris Hinds Memorial Crit down in Charlestown, RI. These two races had one thing in common, they were both really cold and way too early for a weekend. At least I didn’t end up like these poor fellows in the Beantown Classic Crit last weekend.

(4) On Saturday April 7^th was the Chris Hinds Memorial in Charlestown, RI. Traveled with TPM. Left the house at 5:10 AM to get there about 6:45AM, ridiculously early. We got out of the car and it was absolutely freezing out. Supposedly it was 30°F but the wind or something made it feel way colder. I had my new Garmin Edge 305 with me but apparently I failed to start the data logger function for the race, otherwise I would upload the data.

If you’ve never raced down here this track is really fun. It’s a flat, smooth, and twisty track 30ft wide with seven turns. The turns are basically the perfect curvature for an event like this, some of them are challenging to corner going faster than 20 mph. People all over the place were being forced off of the pavement onto the smooth grass both to the inside and outside of turns.

I did less than a half mile of warmup for this race. I need to get better at this! The race started and I was freezing cold, and felt really tight. Luckily, the pace was a lot slower than any other race I’ve ever done, I’d guess mostly due to the tight corners. At times we were doing 17mph on the straightaway and my heart rate could really slow down. The race was 30 minutes + 6 laps, so after about 30 mintues the officials brought out the lap cards indicating 6 laps to go. The pace still remained relatively slow with the occasional jump to 25-30 mph coming out of a turn. I had been sitting in the back of the 30-man pack pretty much the entire race and decided I preferred to maneuver the course on the left side on the pack. With three to go I was feeling ever so slightly worked, so I began making some moves towards the front of the pack. Met a fellow NEBC teammate (Kurt) in this process that I had watchced work the front of the pack for much of the race. Lesson learned: get to races earlier and meet teammates BEFORE the race starts!

With two to go one racer managed to sneak off of the front with no action from within the pack. In fact, the pack remained relatively mellow until the final lap, when everything really picked up. I was sitting in the front third, and made a move into the front 5 on the back stretch and we were really moving at this point, close to 30 mph. Coming out of the second to last turn I made my move and my pedals bottomed out on the pavement which was a near disaster. I sprinted ahead a little too cautiously and came around the last corner coming around the front of the pack, but with the breakaway rider still 30 meters out. Out of the last corner in the front I hit a huge wall of wind which totally killed me, and 8 riders sprinted by me like I wasn’t even moving. A lesson learned there too about finshing tactics. I think we had split the pack at some point because I looked back and no one was there, so I sat up and coasted through the finish for 10^th place, I was spent.

This was the most fun race I’ve been in to date which I’m sure has something to do with the fact that it’s the first race I’ve actually been close to winning. I can’t wait to go back for their next race and run this track again on the 14^th, it was so much fun.

Result: 10/30, cat 5, Results

(3) The Wells Ave race was a lot of fun even though it was an awful and embarrassing performance on my behalf. Being a crash5 I raced in the C race, and the plan was just to finish with the main pack seeing as this would be a personal first for a USCF race. We rolled off and the pace was fast, but not too too fast, maybe 24-25mph. I was sitting in 2/3rds of the way back when the official rang the bell for a prime lap on lap 3 of 12. Everyone in the pack got antsy and there was a lot of shuffling around for position. Going around turn 3 I felt really good my adrenaline got the best of me and I decide to contend for the prime. Came around turn 4 up on the pedals past the pack and realized that there were four riders that had already accelerated off of the front. I gave my 100% to catch them but what a waste. I finished that prime lap somewhere in between the leader and the pack and my heart rate was through the roof. Going around turn 1 the pack went nuking by me and going up the small hill on turn 2 I couldn’t even catch a wheel being totally winded from that waste of a sprint. I got dropped with a handful of other racers who formed a small but fun chase group. I sat in there pretty embarrassed for the rest of the race.

Result: Dropped, Results