Race Report - Iowa State Crit Championships
Saturday, 23 August 2008
Pella, Iowa
It was a beautiful day of sunshine and cycling on Saturday. I was feeling great and was really looking forward to the Cat. 4 race at 3:00pm. We arrived at Caldwell Park at around 12:20 and were able to watch the final 25 laps of the Pro/1/2 race which was 50 laps totaling 30 miles. The show that Rassy's Cat.1 racer Lou Waugaman put on was quite inspiring and although I was not going to be able to lap the field, it did give me a little more motivation to stay on front in preparation for a break in the Cat. 4 race.
The course is rectangular in shape and all left turns, 2 blocks/1 block/2 blocks/1 block, with turn one being a double apex, turn two is flat, turn 3 leads into a two-tier uphill, and turn four returns back downhill. There is also a slight rise from halfway down the front straight and a slight downhill section on the back straight. The course is very inviting to high speeds and tight cornering situations. 30 riders took the start line for the Cat. 4 race at 3:00pm and we were on our way shortly there after. With a scheduled 35 laps for us, I used the first few laps to get a feel for the rest of the group and then made my way toward my now familiar spot in the front of the field helping to control the pace. I quickly found myself watching the lap board to count down the laps for some reason...33,32,31...and made a mental note to quit doing that. It helped me to get my head in the task at hand and stay towards the front. In the first 10 laps or so I took my fair share of pulls with quite a few other racers and none of the attacks that were attempted were able to stick. I was actually very impressed with how well everyone was working in the first few laps but, that soon came to an end as fewer and fewer people came up front as some of them went off the back and some of them sat in. I made one attempt to get off the front with Evan Peterson (North Iowa Spin) but we lasted less than one lap before beig sucked back in so I went back to doing my work. Unfortunately, I found myself pulling for way more laps than I wanted to as no one wanted to come around and help when there were 10 laps to go. Since I was by myself after my two teammates were used up, I tried to conserve a little bit of energy for the end. With about five laps left to go, three riders from Iowa Orthopaedic came to the front to take over the pace making. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, I jumped into the middle of them and we set a pretty high pace, railing through the corners at near 30mph at times. I began to get myself situated for the end with a couple of laps to go and stayed in the first four spots. Coming into Turn 3 for the final time I was preparing to dive into the turn from the outside when two guys came flying inside of the pack at blazing speed. One of those riders had the rear tire start bouncing around a little bit and then went sliding into the curb destroying his rear wheel right in front of me. That forced me to go scrub off almost all of my speed and go around him next to the curb and watch as I went from the front three spots to 12th in the blink of an eye. I stayed with the group but it was way to much ground to make up so that's where I finished.
I was a little upset about the whole thing but, as numerous other riders came up after the finish and commended my efforts for the race I was actually feeling pretty good about my performance when all was said and done. 12th place may be where I finished the race but, it does not show how I was really doing. That's racing though and it happens to everyone at some point in time. Congratulations to all of the racers who placed this past weekend and nice work to everyone else who busted butt. It was a good race.
2008 Iowa State Criterium Championship Results
That signifies the end of the 2008 road racing season in Iowa. Hopefully next year will be a little better for me. Cyclocross season is now on the horizon for 2008 so I'll see you out there. :)
Pella, Iowa
It was a beautiful day of sunshine and cycling on Saturday. I was feeling great and was really looking forward to the Cat. 4 race at 3:00pm. We arrived at Caldwell Park at around 12:20 and were able to watch the final 25 laps of the Pro/1/2 race which was 50 laps totaling 30 miles. The show that Rassy's Cat.1 racer Lou Waugaman put on was quite inspiring and although I was not going to be able to lap the field, it did give me a little more motivation to stay on front in preparation for a break in the Cat. 4 race.
The course is rectangular in shape and all left turns, 2 blocks/1 block/2 blocks/1 block, with turn one being a double apex, turn two is flat, turn 3 leads into a two-tier uphill, and turn four returns back downhill. There is also a slight rise from halfway down the front straight and a slight downhill section on the back straight. The course is very inviting to high speeds and tight cornering situations. 30 riders took the start line for the Cat. 4 race at 3:00pm and we were on our way shortly there after. With a scheduled 35 laps for us, I used the first few laps to get a feel for the rest of the group and then made my way toward my now familiar spot in the front of the field helping to control the pace. I quickly found myself watching the lap board to count down the laps for some reason...33,32,31...and made a mental note to quit doing that. It helped me to get my head in the task at hand and stay towards the front. In the first 10 laps or so I took my fair share of pulls with quite a few other racers and none of the attacks that were attempted were able to stick. I was actually very impressed with how well everyone was working in the first few laps but, that soon came to an end as fewer and fewer people came up front as some of them went off the back and some of them sat in. I made one attempt to get off the front with Evan Peterson (North Iowa Spin) but we lasted less than one lap before beig sucked back in so I went back to doing my work. Unfortunately, I found myself pulling for way more laps than I wanted to as no one wanted to come around and help when there were 10 laps to go. Since I was by myself after my two teammates were used up, I tried to conserve a little bit of energy for the end. With about five laps left to go, three riders from Iowa Orthopaedic came to the front to take over the pace making. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, I jumped into the middle of them and we set a pretty high pace, railing through the corners at near 30mph at times. I began to get myself situated for the end with a couple of laps to go and stayed in the first four spots. Coming into Turn 3 for the final time I was preparing to dive into the turn from the outside when two guys came flying inside of the pack at blazing speed. One of those riders had the rear tire start bouncing around a little bit and then went sliding into the curb destroying his rear wheel right in front of me. That forced me to go scrub off almost all of my speed and go around him next to the curb and watch as I went from the front three spots to 12th in the blink of an eye. I stayed with the group but it was way to much ground to make up so that's where I finished.
I was a little upset about the whole thing but, as numerous other riders came up after the finish and commended my efforts for the race I was actually feeling pretty good about my performance when all was said and done. 12th place may be where I finished the race but, it does not show how I was really doing. That's racing though and it happens to everyone at some point in time. Congratulations to all of the racers who placed this past weekend and nice work to everyone else who busted butt. It was a good race.
2008 Iowa State Criterium Championship Results
That signifies the end of the 2008 road racing season in Iowa. Hopefully next year will be a little better for me. Cyclocross season is now on the horizon for 2008 so I'll see you out there. :)
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on 8.25.2008 at 7:27 AM.
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