A Day Late Race Report

Better late than never I suppose, but I did in fact race this past weekend, hitting up both the Fed Center and Bannock. Both days, the fields were pretty much as expected, mostly local, but hard hitting. I really wasn't too sure what to expect from my legs since last week was the return to some intensity after a couple weeks of just noodling between weekend racing.

For the Fed Center race, we had a full team . . . minus Zac who was tearing it up at Super Week, but plus one freshly married Randy Aardema. On lap one, Greg Krause and a couple others got up the road and built up a pretty respectable gap, but with the wind and the horsepower in the field, it didn't look likely that they'd be able to stay away. Brian got to the front and helped out with some of the pace making and after a few laps we were all back together. I put in a couple attacks and thought a couple times we might have the right mix, but it was not to be. After the race, we had the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" discussion as to what happens if you have Scott Moninger in a move with you and he's not working. If you drill it and do all the work because he's not committed to the move, he'll kill you and solo in for the win, making the only smart option sitting up and reshuffling. Such is life and that's cycling, but a little frustrating when you are sitting in a group with Moninger, Baker, Donald, etc. With everything together, I was comfortably moving around the pack at one lap to go, planning one last escape effort, when things went "wham! psssssssssss . . ." I drilled a pothole, flatted a tubie and even worse, cracked a carbon rim. I really had no choice at that point but to turn around and take the shortest route to the parking lot. I found Brian there, having suffered a puncture of his own as well. Chuck did a great job on his own though and took third on the day.

Sunday, with some nasty clouds hanging low, Chuck and I rolled up to the line with a slightly stronger field chasing the larger chunk of prize money for the Bannock Crit. Given our numbers for the day, we planned on playing it a little more conservatively, but when presented with the opportunity to jump early, I took it and was quickly joined by Moninger again and a lap or so later, Frank Pipp. With 60 minutes of racing left, it was not to be and we were brought back by the pack in a few laps. I spent some time floating and following moves before getting caught behind a crash in corner three. The trip to the pit was apparently too quick and we were reinserted after a free half-lap and had to chase just as much as if we hadn't gone to the pit! After that point, I never really got myself back in the race and didn't maintain position like I should have. While still not a very good crit racer at all, I am slowly getting better and more confident. Sitting at the back with some of the riff-raff was nothing short of horrifying at times . . . getting out of the saddle to go through corners . . . who does that?!? In any case, I finished with all my skin, but never threatened to crack the top 20 come the end of the race.