The "Official" Report......

Its not to say that Denise's report wasn't good, in fact it was good since it would be a good outsiders view, but she's asked for more, so i'm here to give it.

For those who don't know what a criterium is, and I think i've explained before, it is a race that goes on time. My race for example was 50 minutes + 3 laps...meaning that the group would race for 50 minutes and once the time is up a bell will be rung and we will do 3 more laps to the finish. It sounds like it could be stupid, and yes, in case you're wondering it is possible to do nothing for 50 minutes to then only do 3 laps and finish, but no, it never happens. My race fell into the "no it never happens" category.

From the start it was quick. Mind you that 1 lap is only 1.3km but by halfway through the first lap I was already away from the pack. I think I chased someone down, but whatever it was it went back and forth for a few laps. In the pack, outta the pack, in the pack, off the front. That went on for maybe 5 minutes or so until I attacked and got a small gap. Shortly there after I was joined by 2 Australians who were good to ride with so we put it on for a few more. Shortly thereafter we were joined by one other guy (who I didn't want there) and it kinda of cooled my jets. I couldn't push the pace of the break because he'd benefit by getting to the finish ahead of the pack like this (duh, right...actually there's more but i'll just confuse it...maybe denise can explain it simply) and since he'd most likely beat the 3 of us others in a sprint i just took it easy. If he wanted to drag me to the finish that was another story, so I just went easy but kept the break moving.

About 40 minutes into it we were caught by 3 guys and the break promptly slowed down. The pack caught us and attack after attack went but with nothing sticking it was coming down to a sprint. Being the designated sprinter for my team as well (i'm no sprinter, but given the options on our team i'm all we got) i tried, poorly, to get into a decent place. Came around the last 3 turns before the finish, a left right left and i was too far back. Finished in 7th.

I'm now sitting in 2nd in the series behind the guy (the one above that i didn't want to take to the finish) who got 4th. With one more crit coming I'll see what we can do to improve on our lack of sprinting. Fortunately though, June brings the time trial and hopefully that will be my cup of tea.

Best news of the day was that I finally finished a race on this side of the world without horrible leg cramps. Usually i can't move when i finish but this time it was ok. Granted, the race was shorter than normal, but i took some hydration salts that a friend suggested and no problems.

Just in time for the Du this coming weekend. A nice bike race with two runs for bookends. I'm going tomorrow night over to John's house and tweaking the tt position a little bit. We'll toss the power meter on and put the bike on the trainer. Change position slightly and see how the power changes....eyeball the aerodynamics.....ghetto tt fitting. score.