Gateway Cup

So I did some crits over Labor Day weekend. I've always been ambivalent about crits, there not as long or exciting or physically draining as a good XC race, but they are always there when the dirt racing is thin for me. I've done a lot of the Tuesday night worlds this year, but the only other real crits I've done were the Tour of STL back in April.

So I went into the biggest crit weekend of the year with little expectation and even less proper preparation as I was given a friend's entry the day before the race on the Hill. Less stress is good and I entered with the mentality of having "fun". There's not much to tell, but I will relay what happened, regardless.

Sunday's race has a nice gradual climb on the backside of the course and it manages to be fairly draining, especially the 20th time through. Luckily, there was a neat sprinkler system like the one in Beijing to keep us cool. I decided to attack here halfway through the race, just for fun, but also to see what happened. I pulled a Big Shark rider clear who promptly rode me off his wheel when he came around. Two other guys bridged and the winning break of three was established. Luckily, I was too cooked from my "attack" to hang on and rolled in with the pack for a sweet 19th.

Monday was much better. We had a motivated and cohesive team and animated the race. A small move by one of our juniors early on was countered by Christopher who spent the next several laps hanging about twenty seconds up solo. All the while, I held down third and fourth wheel in the chase, marking everything that tried to bridge. When he was caught, Charlie countered and stayed clear for two more laps. As he was nearly caught, a group countered and I successfully bridged up to them and went for gold. Our group of six dropped two riders until there were four of us left. The prospect of even getting fourth was exciting to me and I hung on, doing minimal work and hoping to stay away to the finish. Going into two laps to go, I heard the two lead riders, who had been doing most of the work, say that they were sitting up because they were sick of the rest of us sitting on and with the pack about ten seconds back, I figured I should contribute to our effort and put in a long pull for more than half a lap. Turning onto the back straight with a lap and a half to go, they attacked and I had no answer. I was immediately gapped and dropped from the break and tried to hold on to fourth in between the break and the chase. I was caught with half a lap remaining and Christopher then won the field sprint for fourth. So, I didn't get the result I wanted, but I am happy with the teamwork and a good result for the team, even if it wasn't me. I feel like I have a better sense of how to race crits after this year, which is good and if nothing else, I know I looked good doing them...