On May 13th, my racing team, the International Christian Cycling Team (ICCC) put on their annual criterium race in Golden, CO. The race takes place on a 1.3 mile closed course loop that the police use to practice/train in their squad cars which is located on top of a large mesa called South Table Mountain. I volunteered to help out the race and was asked to work at the registration table. My fiancee said she wanted to come help out as well and we got there early and worked the table together, entering every racer's name on the scoring sheets.I also decided to race the Wheels of Thunder category 4 men. This was my first race of the season and only my third criterium ever. My race wasn't until 12:55 so I helped at the registration table until about 11:30 and then started getting my bike ready for my race and warming up. I had to change my tires on my spare wheels for the wheel pit (in case I got a flat during the race) because my old tires had holes in them and I had just recieved my new tires at the race. That took me a little while and then I got my bike all ready to go and put it on the trainer I got from my coworker to warm up. I had it in my mind that my race was at 1:00 instead of 12:55 so I rode the trainer a little longer than I should have. As I was taking my bike of the trainer and preparing it to race, I realized that I didn't have my race number on my jersey yet! I can't put it on myself while I'm wearing my jersey so I ran over to wear Kendra was working, but she was not where to be found so I found my closest team member (a guy from emmaus) and asked him to pin my number on as fast as he could. I only had a couple minutes until the start of my race! He did a fabulous job, then I ran over and grabbed my bike, hopped on it, and bike the wrong direction on the race course towards the start line, swerved off the road right before the pack at the line and went to the back of the pack. Right after I turned my bike around and got on it, they fired the gun to start the race! I almost missed my first race of the season!
That got my adrenaline pumping pretty good, so I was amped up for my race. As we started I let most everyone go ahead of me and just hung out in the back. I needed to get a little more warmed up before I tried anything fancy. My goal for the race was just to hang on and finish with the pack. After the first lap I felt that I had to work pretty hard to hold on, but I was still hanging. I started to feel a little better during the second lap and started to get into a rhythm even though I was still working very hard, and we had to race 14 laps! On the third lap I was feeling pretty good and started to work my way up closer to the front of the pack. I think it was on this lap when there was a crash right next to me! It happened pretty quickly, I just saw a couple guys collide and go down and heard the terrible noise of metal grinding on asphalt. I was very thankful that I wasn't right behind the crash. On the next lap as we were going through the S-turns on the far side of the track, the peloton (pack of riders) condensed very quickly and I had guys pressing up against me on both sides. It was pretty nerve wracking, but I kept my cool and we rode out of it without any harm.
Around the 7th lap or so, I found myself near the front of the peloton and feeling pretty good so I decided to push myself as we were approaching the finish line. I broke off the front of the peloton for a little bit and crossed the line in about 2nd or 3rd place. I didn't get any credit or anything for that effort, but it was really fun. On the following lap however, I was regretting speding that much energy and had to really push it to not drop off the back of the peloton. I was able to stay in the pack and recover over the next lap and then started mixing it up again. A couple laps later there was a small break away off the front. I was up near the front of the pack and we worked together to reel them back in quickly.
The next thing I noticed was the announcer saying there were only two more laps to go. I couldn't believe it! We were almost done and I was still in the main pack. I just had to hold on for two more laps to accomplish my goal. The race felt like it was going by really quickly too. So, I managed to hang in the pack for that lap and the following. As we were coming down the final stretch to the finish line I realized that I had made it! I had finished with the first group! Then I thought, "why don't I try to move up in the field a little more?" So I worked my way up a little bit and finished 22nd out of 58 finishers and 93 starters. I was surprised at how many racers had dropped out. Our average speed was about 27mph and it took us just under 45 mins to ride about 18.2 miles.
Complete results are here.
I actually had a blast in this race. Criteriums have never been my favorite race, but I really enjoyed this one since I didn't have a flat tire or get dropped like my first two races. As I look back I feel like I could have finished higher if I had pushed it a little sooner and harder as we were finishing, but I wasn't really trying because I was content with my performance. Part of me wishes that I had though. I guess I will have to do another criterium and go for the win next time...
