J'm'appelle "crayon"! (and the May 2011 BP Crit)

That is a big pack breathing down my neck at 30+ MPH.

Before we get to the REAL blog post.... I have gone over 20 years without a major bicycle crash and now I have had two in less than a month. I think my wife is getting tired of bandaging me up, she has started to twitch every time she opens a tube of Neosporin. So yesterday conditions were very wet (heck, doesn't everybody go out and ride despite tornado warnings?) and I failed to hold a good line around a curve, hit a painted line and my front wheel went out from under me. Let's just say that I'll never be wearing those bike shorts ever again. So here I am, back to icing, bandaging and riding a trainer indoors. At least last weekend was fun....

This past weekend I signed up for two races at the BP Crit.  As I have mentioned before, Crits aren't really my thing.  The big crowds with the massive group sprint finishes isn't what comes naturally to me.  However, this race was local and is the type of race that the whole family can see as I am not disappearing for long periods of time between laps (possibly hours if the race is an out-and-back).  The pack was indeed massive with about 80 racers per race.  You can read about the races in the link to the race report below.

Beyond the race report are two things that stand out about the crits this past weekend:

At one point I heard the announcer say that Jeremy Barnes was off the front of the peloton.  I have memories of Jeremy riding away from the group in races earlier in the year (before I knew who he was) and they all screamed that if I wanted to finish in the top few spots, I needed to get on his wheel. I was in about the top ¼ of the peloton at the time and thought if I don't act now, he might get away.  I instantly shifted to a faster gear, got to the front of the peloton, and chased him down. Turns out he wasn't really going anywhere he was using the crit more for training and was just going for a late prime at the time. I should have realized that the race was running too fast to let anyone get away like that, but at least I had fun with chase and leading a lap.

Coach Rob's pre-race counsel.

In the second race I was in an ideal position with three laps to go but wasn't able to keep up the effort. I got boxed in and couldn't make up the ground once I was finally able to spring free.  You can read in my report how I was following Rob's advice on accelerating with the group to avoid being swarmed.  I did a good job all race-long of not getting swarmed except for that one critical time.  I was about 5 riders back with two laps to go when the paceline went to the far right side of the road; practically in the gutter.  I should have offset a little to the left of the paceline to leave myself room to get around them once racers from behind started to pass (or the other option would have been to start passing them slowly myself while getting ready to pounce on the new pace line coming from behind).  Instead I was slightly inside.  This caused me to get boxed in and swarmed becauase I had no room to maneauver to the right (gutter) or to the left (other racers brushing by at a much higher speed then we were going).  I probably wouldn't have had enough left in the tank to be a contender in the final sprint, but if I didn't get boxed in I may have been able to hold my position well enough to get me in the top 15.

Despite my slightly below mid-pack finishes, I think I am starting to get the hang of crits and can do much better next time.  I don't know if I will ever have the power-sprinting required to finish first (and even if I did I am not sure I would want to develop that if it meant sacrificing my ability to do well in road races), but I should be able to start landing in the top 15.

BC Race Team Report:
http://bcraceteam.blogspot.com/2011/06/bp-may-crit-elite-4-and-35-34.html