NFR - Race Report # 13 & 14

[RidgeRider]

The Golden State Criterium and Circuit race was this weekend in Rancho Cordova, CA. It was a fairly local race, only about 40 minutes away, sponsored by one of the local racing teams but most importantly....no getting up @ 4AM this weekend! 
 
Saturday was a .9 mile criterium course with 6 rights and 2 slight lefts, and Sunday was a 2.5 mile course using part of the same course as Sunday big difference is we did it in reverse so mostly left handers. 
 
The field was 45 strong and this week I finally got a chance to race against the 45+ crowd again. I would find out today, that age doesn't matter much as this group all wanted to prove we were faster than the younger groups. 
 
Saturday, I finally got a good warmup in before a race. Spent 30 minutes on my trainer, before heading to the start finish line. Glad I did it cause today I would need it....boy would I need it! 
 
At 9:40 we got off the line, things started tamely, but within a 1/2 mile the pace started to really pick up. One thing to note, while racing, I don't check my speedometer at all or how far I have gone, I may look down to see how much time we have been racing to gauge how hard I should go but that's about it. Since these criteriums are timed to be over within 40-45 minutes, it is good to know if you have 10 minutes left. 
 
I started out in the back of the peloton on lap 1. We started picking up speed on the backside of the course and coming across the start/finish line on lap 1 I was in 20th. I decided to move up on lap 2 and ended up slotting in on 4th wheel. I stayed in about 4-8th position for most of the race. We had a few attacks but nothing stuck. The pace was furious and relentless. With two laps to go, the swarming began, going into the last lap, I had fallen back to about 25th place as EVERYONE was trying to get to the front. I took an outside line on turn 3 to get around some riders on managed to move up to about 10th but on the back straightaway, a train from the inside darted to the front and I got locked out again on the outside, basically in bicylce prison, with no place to go. By the time I got around the final corner, I was so out of position, there was no place to go and no line for me to attack the line, I did a decent sprint but ended up in 20th place......I had expected much better but learned a lesson, the second time, to be in a place where there is room at the end. Made this mistake twice now. We averaged 25.2 mph! Fastest race I have been in.....not bad for a bunch of 45-50 year olds eh?

The race on Sunday went much the same way. I stayed on the front the whole race (better course by the way) on the last lap, the swarming to front began again, I was back in 30th place going into the the finaly 1/2 mile, took off on the inside, passed a bunch of guys and missed the final surge sprint for a 15th place. Much better tactical race and had I pushed a little harder coming into that final sprint, it would have been a much better day. The legs were there but I backed off and shouldn't have.

Had a great time and results are getting better.

Two more race this weekend and then a bit of a break.............
 

[HatterDon]

thanks, Jack. Looking forward to the next installment. :54:

[blingo]

you haven't written blingo into that shirt label yet have you??? :007:

[RidgeRider]

you haven't written blingo into that shirt label yet have you??? :007:

Not yet Blingo. I'll do it tonight and let you know in my report on Monday how Saturday and Sunday go.

[blingo]

10 times better when the force is with you Jack  :54: