Cherry Pie Criterium - Sunday, March 1, 2015

My too brief attempt to string out the field
photo: Katie Truong

I didn't plan to race this weekend, but with teammates up at the Chico Stage race, and several teammates heading to this one, the urge to do this nearby race is too hard to pass up.

Jim Forester and Henrik Schubert already had their carpool arranged, so I invited unattached Jeff Kato to carpool with my wife Jen, race-dog Stella, and myself.

Goals

In this combined field there were six uf us Cushman & Wakefield racers: Jim Forester, Dan Rugani, Jaime Madrigal, Henrik Schubert, Peter Aughney and myself. The race was a combination of two groups: M35-cat4/5, and M55-cat4/5, picked separately. My “raciing age” is 55, but denial and the desire to complete a second season in the m45 group has me registering for m45 and occasional m35 groups. I thought I was entering to be picked with the 35s, but in the end, officials recorded results based on racing age.

With two weeks until my next race (Bariani), my primary goals for racing this day, were simply to maintain my pack riding skills and get a great workout. Nothing beats the random power surges that result in a criterium. Also I hoped to be available be of use to my teammates.

Team Pre-Race Discussion

Our brief pre-race meeting acknowledged these factors:

• the brevity (25 minutes), the size of the field (likely 65-70, with 50 pre-registered and many, like myself, signing up onsite)
• the abbreviated hill on the course (shortened by almost half compared to last year)
• the expected high speed right from the whistle

We decided to attempt to unite near the last few laps and check in with each other to see if we feel like mounting an attack.

The Race

A year ago, during torrential rain, I placed 5^th of 20 in this race and felt the course was quite safe. But this day the peloton was over three times the size. One more factor made this year's race completely different. Promoters cropped my favorite feature–a 290-meter long finishing stretch, up a pack-splitting climb, from the chicane to the finish line, which got progressively harder each lap. Now the u-turnaround and finish line were 120 meters down the hill, resulting in a much faster course. Now at only 170 meters, the tight chicane would certainly be the start of the final sprint.

In such a short crit (25 minutes!) Many a racer's plan to get a good position at the start were foiled by the official releasing us to ride full lap. I used this time to regain a decent pack-forward position at the actual lineup.

As predicted, the pace was fast from the whistle. Early on, Henrik skillfully dug in and maintained an impressive hold on a position in the front 5 for the whole race. At about mid-pack, I used the first 4 laps to note the areas that were best for moving up. The wide, sweeping curves and corners of last year were much tighter with more riders. I had success  for advancing in the pack on three sections:

• A 350 meter, curved stretch right after turn 1
• A 240 meter stretch right before the chicane
• The 170 meter rise from the chicane to the u-turn.

The rare times I achieved a forward position I was not diligent about holding it (I need to work on this). Kudos again to Henrik on his skills here. With 6 laps to go, on the big curve, I moved up along the right side, from mid-pack to the front, ahead of Henrik's wheel. Through the narrow, 270 meter, curved section that followed, I asked Henrik if he felt like going for it. I could tell he thought it was way too early, and he was right, but I like to change the flavor of these short criteriums. Time to string out the peloton and even see if Henrik and I could get away with maybe two more riders. I launched but only succeeded in increasing the peloton's  pace from 25 mph to a bit over 26 mph for about 1-1/2 laps riding on the front. Shortly after I began this effort, passing through the narrow section on the backside of the course, I heard a crash that must've been among the front ten riders. Next time around, I saw Jaime laying on the asphalt, with a course marshall next to him. I felt terrible for him and I could only hope he was not badly hurt. He appeared to be conscious, and I assume the course marshal asked him to stay put until medics arrived to check him out. The road is divided with orange pylons and yellow tape there because the other half is open to vehicle traffic. So the marshall needed to protect Jaime from traffic on either side of the border tape.

I wasn't producing a gap, and I was now toast. With about 4 laps to go, a rider jumped into the lead on the finishing stretch, overcooked the u-turn and clipped his pedal. He slid to the right, but not far enough. The rest of us had to alter our lines out of the turn to avoid hitting him, while making sure our new lines didn't cause more damage behind us. Jim pulled through for a bit, and by then we had a lap or so to go. On the bell lap, I knew I wasn't recovered enough to claw my way into position to set up before the chicane. If I had, I'd become an obstacle, so I remained mid-pack and watched the sprint from there.

While teammate Henrik Schubert takes 5th at the line, I'm rolling in twenty riders back, calling out a downed rider
photo: Katie Truong 

It took skill even at non-sprinting speed to avoid a rider who crashed in the front six sprinters.

At the line, I came across the line 26^th. But with the age group split, I learned I'd finished 5^th and Jim 6^th, of nine m55 riders. I'm not particularly proud of my result, because I was racing with the whole field, not nine guys.

The team regrouped afterwards, then rolled down to find Jaime was basically fine, though stiff and banged up a bit. He had many family and friends who came to watch him race. Seeing them I again felt terrible about him laying on the road for two laps. By the way, double-kudos to Jaime for winning the E5 race earlier that morning!

There's no substitute for efficiency. The same goes for commitment. You can combine both qualities, but I didn't in this race. Once I deviated from the team's plan earlier than expected (staying sheltered in the front 10-12 until possibly the last 3 or 4 laps), I should've committed more fully to the attack, which might have at least created a gap, which in such a short race, is actually worth a try.

I didn't approach this race with much in the way of commitment, so it took me a long time to get around to posting this. I think this disappointment in myself helped me develop determination for my next race.