#275: Plein Air, 3/4 circuit race
My original plan was to race both races (3/4 & 1/2/3), both days, but I ended up pulling back from that to not overtax myself by doubling up on Saturday. It worked out well because by Thursday, I had some sort of minor stomach issue that kept me from eating well on Thursday and lingered in my July 3rd day off work. I really started to feel a lot better by Friday night.
We lined up a total of 5 riders in the 3/4 race with Curt doubling up from the 4 race (he wasn’t to race on Sunday in any case). Pretty early on (2nd lap?), David got into a small break (maybe the 1st or 2nd lap) and it started to gain a little bit of time. Knowing the course was wide open and not really challenging (other than the sharp corners), I knew we would have to help defend the break. And that was pretty much our race (for the rest of the team). We would ride up front, pull through and generally just keep it going at 22-23 mph instead of the 25-26 mph needed to pull it back. A few riders tried to move across, we were always jumping on it.
The break ended up lasting the balance of the 40 minute circuit race with David finishing up in 2nd place. The battle for the rest was going to be interesting, so with about 3 miles to go, I ramped it up to string out the mixed (3 and 4) field into the final 3 corners (the final two we would see only at the end of the race).
Unfortunately, we didn’t get another in the top 5, but Frogge was 7t?, I finished up 12th with Curt right behind in 13th. Jarret flatted out late in the race. As a team, we worked well (every man) to make sure the 30 seconds or so the break had for most of the race would not drop to zero.
Right after my race, Andrea raced to a win in the Women’s open race. She got up the road with Debbie Milne (wearing her Master’s nats championship jersey). At the end they battled it out… unfortunately Debbie missed that the race finish was off the loop and sprinted early. By the time she realized, she was sprinting from behind Andrea into the finish stretch. In the end, it was really close, but Andrea took it.
Tomorrow is the criterium on the campus of Ole Miss in Oxford. And yes, I will race both the 3/4 and 1/2/3 race tomorrow.
You ran a good race at the crit today (7-5). It’s a shame you didn’t get more help from “some” people in orange & black when you were working the front or in a break.
Congratulations on a hard effort.
Comment by Richard — July 5, 2009 @ 7:09 pm
My style of racing (especially crits) is pretty aggressive. I will make converts of the non-believers.
Comment by Ryan — July 6, 2009 @ 7:57 am