Hey everyone,
This is a race report of the second event of DFW weekend, the No Frills Criterium. First of all, I had never raced two events on the same day, so this would be a challenge for me. I would say that I probably gave a 90-95% effort in the time trial, so I was pretty tired afterward, and I had about and hour and a half to catch my breath. We were about to go eat, but we couldn’t find Joseph after he had finished the time trial. Sean and the rest of the team decided to go eat, while I waited behind for Joseph since our event would be starting soon.
After waiting for about an hour, there was no sign of Joseph anywhere. I was getting pretty worried, but I had to make my way to the next race so I decided to go without him. After warming up on the course for about thirty minutes, the race directors called my group to the line. Remembering how badly my first crit went, I set aside some goals for this event in order to improve. Jay was there, so there would be a very good chance of him winning. I knew going in to the race that I probably had very little chance of winning, as I needed to improve both my handling skills and power maintenance in order to be in contention. Thus, I decided that my goal for today would be to not get dropped.
The course was much more technical this time around and contained about 3-4 U-turns, 2 of them at high speed. When we started, we were going pretty fast, but we weren’t going at breakneck speed, so I was able to hang on the pack for about 10 minutes…much longer than the last time. However, a UH guy in front of me was getting tired and he started to fall backward…as soon as I knew it, we were both off the back and I had to catch back on. Unfortunately, I was still smoked from the time trial so I couldn’t stay on. I think had I stayed closer to the front I could have lasted another five minutes in the pack.
After falling back, I saw Jay pick up the pace and it looked like no one could catch him. The pack was frantically trying to maintain a reasonable gap behind Jay, but it just kept getting bigger, and riders were being spit off the back. Fortunately, I was able to catch a few guys coming off the back, and as I passed them I told them to get behind me so we could work together. Unfortuntately, none of them were able to pull and fell back, and I soon found myself without allies. At least I was stronger than someone. There was an Aggie hanging off the back and I tried to catch up to him, but by then the race was pretty much decided as Jay won emphatically.
Despite not finishing with the pack, there were a few things I did better than last time. The course was more difficult, and I was able to stay with the pack for a longer amount of time than at A&M. My cornering improved, but not enough yet to be competitive at criteriums. I would say out of all the types of races I’ve done, criteriums are my worst. It’s only to my benefit to improve on my weaknesses, so I will keep racing crits in order to gain the handling experience that I need to be competitive. The skills I’ll learn in these races will even carry over to road races and time trials.
After the race, I found Joseph in the parking lot and I asked him where he went. Hilariously, when he finished the time trial, he had no idea that he had finished and kept going full-blast for another 30 minutes! That means he probably burned more calories than me today. Apparently, one of the race officials told him to keep going as the finish was ahead – right at the finish line. Thus, Joseph got confused and didn’t know where the race ended until he was out in the middle of nowhere. I remember that same race official saying something similar to me as I finished, and it was slightly confusing but I managed to finish at the right location.
I think the Men’s B race deserves some merit. Ken, Jacob, Hogan, Geisinger, Corey, and Whitney were in that race. This was probably the most exciting race of the day. There was probably an attack on every lap of the course. An exciting racing report can be found on Ken’s Blog as he actually participated in the race.
Ken can be a strong finisher, but he’s not a pure sprinter, so he knew if he wanted to win, he would have to outsmart the pack and tire out the sprinters before the bunch sprint. The pace was very intense and after a few laps, Corey fell of the back, along with Jacob. An Aggie put in an aggressive attack, but he was reeled in after a few seconds, then Ken threw in the first of his many attacks and he was able to stay away for a little while, but was caught.
Jacob looking fly on his Fisher…
In the middle of the race, one of the MSU riders put in a strong attack and caused a split in the field. There were 8 riders in the front, with Hogan, Ken, and Whitney in the front…a strong group. I was very surprised that Roy Bracey, winner of the A&M criterium, was struggling to stay in this group. It was then that I realized that Ken had a very strong chance of winning if he could stay in the front. It was about this time that Geisinger fell off the back. After the pack came back together, Whitney threw in a powerful attack that lasted a few seconds. Many of the race officials were very impressed that she was able to be aggressive with the men’s group:
Whitney mixing it up with the boys…
I think as the race went on Ken put in more attacks, and when there were four laps left, he went all out and put in one final attack, and he was able to stay away for a long time. The officials were criticizing him because he wasn’t as good of a handler as the best riders in the group. He was taking wide turns, and not taking full advantage of cutting the apex. Thus, they downplayed his chances to win. I wanted him to win so badly just to spite all of those non-believers. When there was one lap to go, Ken was still in front! We were all cheering for him. When everyone came around for the final sprint, Ken had such an advantage over the field that he was able to give an emphatic victory salute – he held up his horns! Congratulations to Ken for a great ride!
Ken soloed his way to an impressive victory!