Well, here is a recap of my misadventures in bottom categories of crit racing in the Lower Mainland.
First, a BIG thanks to the EV guys for running great races.
I bought my Season pass this year for UBC and I am glad for it. For 100 bucks(which seemed like a lot), I am finding that I would have already paid 30 to race for the first 2 weeks so I am hoping I will at least ride 7 more weeks to get value out of it. and skipping the line and just signing on is fun. The only critique i have is there is no set out upgrade strategy. I think that if you win the prime and the race a couple times in your cat per year you should get bumped(10 pts in novice to get to cat4.) Otherwise, you are sandbagging.
Week 1 UBC report:
There were about 12 or so guys for the first outing. Mostly new folks, and a couple of novices from last year. I entered novice on the fact that I had not finished with the group last year and I wanted to see my fitness so far. I felt way more comfortable in the group and tried to be conscious of staying near the front, but not spending too much time in the wind.
There were a couple of guys that were fast and we started out at a reasonable pace about 36kh(I got a computer so I can go full nerd). There was a one guy that has a great knack for not working, but stays in the group. He challenged for the prime, and then popped out again for the final sprint. It was a good night because it was pretty clean. I am starting to see the sketchy guys and be mindful of getting away from them. Over all a fun night and 38kph average speed, pretty quick for novice.
I lost my chain off the big ring and went from 2nd to 5th on the last sprint. That's racing though.
Week 2 UBC recap: 21 starters, and a pack of about 8 in the bunch finish. Not me, I was about 10 or 11th. I pushed the pace at 2 to go and had nothing left for the last sprint.
More new faces, more sketchy riding, more guys not wanting to work and I spent a lot of time at the front. There was on guy that kept changing lines in the corner and when he was shifting. I had no mechanicals in this race, thank to properly adjusting my high stop on the front derailleur. The ettiquitte of sharing the work is appealing to me and it is fun to work with guys to push the group along and grind everyone down, myself included.
I was feeling a bit stiff, because I spent the weekend in Maui(woe is me) and climbed up Haleakala. Every bike rider, road or mountian has to do this at least once in their life.
The race was good, and it is interesting to see the huge egos on guys even in the novice class, after the race. I got my ass kicked, but I didn't need to hear guys who placed say "It's alright but it's only cat5". If you are better than Novice, there are lots of other classes to race in.
I will post up the Thursday recap in a bit.