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This year it was a bit better outcome for me than last year (and the year before). The format changed somewhat, with longer course with a more moderate hill…. With my current fitness, I would have preferred the old course, but I made this work for me the best I could. The time of day also played in-with a twilight start, most of the race was run in the dark with only a streetlights and a few extra lights to show the way.

My plan, first and foremost was to survive. I have always had bad luck at this crit, going 0 for 2 on not staying with the field. This year was going to be different. We had a nearly full slate for the Cat 3 race, including Aaron, William, David, Jarrett, and myself. My start went well (a weak point for me), but was hung up by some others that were to the pedals as quickly… it wasn’t a problem since the course started out screaming down an 8% grade to a lazy turn before ducking under the highway and back up the course’s short hill. Early on, I worked my way up and was up to near the front by the 3rd lap or so. Some of the riding that I witnessed (and experienced) drove me to want to stay up front.

As it got dark, the riding got sketchier and the potholes deeper. About 20 minutes into the crit, it hit a deep pothole in the dark part of the bottom of the course… my tire seemed fine for about 5 seconds, but that didn’t last… flat. I rode it back up the hill (on my flat Conti competition) and got back to the pit just in time for the field to come by. I switched out my wheel and waited for the field to return.

I rejoined at the back and worked my way to the front over the next lap or so. The next few laps were uneventful… with three to go, I pushed hard up the hill to see what was going on and most of the field easily came with me. On the final lap, the field slowed and ballooned across the road on the bottom of the course. I attacked around the right side with the plan to string out the field and see how well I could hold on…. Some did and came around me on the 2nd part of the hill up. I dropped a few places, but ended up in 9th place. Which put me in the money, barely (paid 9 deep).

Tomorrow is the road race, the event I was more looking forward to. Unfortunately, I flatted out my rear wheel, so I might have to use my pit wheel for the road race. (I left my spare tubular tire at home.)

The interesting thing is that I had another race with a WKO+ intensity factor of 1.045 (normalized power / functional threshold power). Granted the race was short of an hour…. I will have to block out some time to test my FTP to see if there has been a change and to reconfirm my change I made after Rouge Roubaix demonstrated power. I haven’t done a power test since back in the fall.

With the races happening into the evening (Pro-1-2 started at 8pm after our race), it changed the vibe at the race. There was a good crowd out there (although as usual it was mostly racers, etc), but the fact there were several places to go eat and grab a beer was a nice change. If they could just get the road repaired in a 2-3 places, it would have been a perfect course, even for night riding.