Course

Crazy fast and technical course with reasonable to great pavement.

View Larger Map

Crew

Solid crit crew: Jake, Sam, Seth and myself. However given the course this would have to be everyone for themselves until the final few laps. “Teamwork starts with guarding your own position.”

Race

Got a funky start from the official – she walked back to the end of the course and then from the back of the field blew the whistle without any warning (and almost 10 minutes late).

Fortunately I was at the front and ready to go. I jumped to 5th wheel and stayed there, fighting for my position around the Crazy P every lap, for the next 10 minutes or so. Apparently I don’t have the top end power for jumping around such tight turns (160s, 180s, etc…) and I started to get fatigued and dehydrated in the heat (even at 8:30am and while drinking constantly).

Lost a position here and there and gained back less positions than I lost as I covered gaps that opened in front riders directly ahead of me. As I lost more positions I had to work harder. My race was effectively over once I hit -20 or so and hesitated to burn the matches necessary to get back into the top ten (didn’t have many matches left to burn after jumping hard out of that Crazy P ever 60 seconds for 20-25 minutes).

Reflection

Finally a super technical course with a 180-degree type turn and good conditions (no wind, no rain, but hot) to show that I’m not quite there in terms of power to put in such a huge jump every minute. The only way I could have stayed in the race was to stay top 5-10 the entire race, and even 10th wheel would have been pushing it. Kudos to Sam for getting to the front and staying there, to Seth to making it all the way to the front from the back by the end of the race, and to Jake for hanging in there until the finish.

Toughest crit yet, even harder than Brisbane in the wind.