#270: Cookeville crit
Still very hot and we got to race during the peak of the heat at 2:15pm. I found out that somehow I rolled a 6th place time trial with my 22:35 time. The race and the heat must have caused a shift from last year…. So with my 9th in the RR and 6th in TT, I broke even for Saturday.
The Sunday crit course is the same old L-shaped one that I remember from 2004. This time I found getting up the hill much easier than I remember it back then and the downhill tight double turn was also much easier than I remember.
I was the lone Memphis Velo rider in the Cat 3 field which had 5 teams with at least 3 riders in them (Cumberland Transit, TriStar/Juris, Gran Fondo, and Jittery Joe’s, and TCRC). I knew that would mean that the attacks would be frequent… I was right about that. Most the early stuff was pretty short lived… but then there was one attack that caused a split… The split was caused my least favorite tactic (blocking), but nevertheless it happened.
Above gallery is a selection of photos by Marsha White.
I jumped around them and I tried to bridge up and ended up being caught in between. A few riders came by me and then I was back in what was left of the field… although that was almost a misnomer since more a few people where up the road… The composition meant that I needed to either bridge or pull them up to the field. I tried the first, and I was covered… after a few times, I couldn’t snap enough for a credible attack, so I decided to just pull them up. By then the group ahead slowed up with two 20 seconds ahead.
At this point we started counting laps and I tried a 3-to-go attack that turned out to be more like a leadout. Other attacks ensuned and I ended up strung out with the rest of them… I finished 13th.. A few others rolled in behind, but along the way we lost about 6-8 riders with all the attacking going on. So as far as a result, it was a bust, but it was still some good training and good racing. I saw what was happening, but there was only so much I could do about alone. I just can’t cover all the moves.
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6/23 update: I took some photos (unfortunately, not with the good camera so the quality is off):
