Cargas Criterium Post-Race Report

The course was a good one. two nearly-90 degree turns and the other two are more of a longer curve in the road than a turn. Uphill finish as expected by the hill profile I dug up.

I was on the trainer for 10 minutes, then got off the trainer and rode around a little. Then when the kids races were over, the course was open but the president of the club had an extra jersey he was bringing, and he showed up like 20 minutes before the scheduled race, so I had to try and pin the number on the jersey and then get everything else ready. Scheduled time was 1:20, and I was ready just before that and wanted to take a lap around before the actual start. I went up the "finishing hill" to take a lap or two, but saw that Cat 4/5 were already lining up. I had no idea and ended up in the back and knew I was screwed already.

Well, the whistle went off and I started to sprint to get my way to the front. I kept getting cut off by other riders wanting to do the same exact thing, so coming around the the base of the hill before the end of the first lap, I was in the back quarter of the field, and pushed up the hill with my teammate Aaron right next to me. I stuck with the field again, trying to move towards the front, but getting cut off again and coming around to the hill I was in the back again, but this time no such luck staying with the field and dropped off the back. I wasn't too far back until the start of the fourth lap when the field started to drop more people off the back on the hill. The biggest problem with this course was that just before the hill is one of the near-90 degree turns, and so the people in the front would speed through, and the further back you are, the more you're using your brakes, so the people in the front have a lot of momentum and the riders in the back have to push harder up the hill.

Anyways, I got lapped like 4 times, and with 5 or 6 laps to go the official started to take out anyone who were lapped or WAY out of contention, so Bob (our president) and I were pulled while Aaron did a good job staying in the field. However, he was in the back and with 4 laps to go we started shouting that he needs to get to the front now for any sort of chance. He couldn't push forward and so he finished in the back of the field, which split up on the last lap.

This was probably the WORST performance I've ever had, even worse than my very first race at Rutgers last year. There was at least one guy behind, I think he pulled himself off the course after getting lapped once. I stayed in, wanting to finish, until the official started pulling. I don't know if I'm being placed or not. I will post about that tomorrow or Tuesday, by which time the results should be posted.

This was a bad day for me, I don't know if I wasn't ready (i.e. didn't warm up or eat enough), or if it was just overall a bad day that nothing could have made it better. I think the second was the situation today, as I think I ate and drank enough, and had at least 20 minutes of warming up.

I have more work to do than I thought I did. Next week is Bloomsburg Town Park Criterium on Sunday. I think I'm opting out, taking a few weeks off from racing before the JBN race, which is one of two main focuses right now. My other is the Pottsville City Cycle 17 race.

I have some exciting news which I will keep the suspense up by waiting until later this week to post.