Yesterday found us in Pella for the final road race of the season, the State Crit. The HBA Team had a total of 9 guys in 5 different races with 3 of the guys doing multiple races. Noteables, Chris Eastburn, 2nd Place Masters 50+ and 3rd Place Masters 40+, Carl Rosenberg, 3rd Place Cat 3 and Mac 2nd Place Juniors 15-18, so a good showing for the team.
Now onto the race, this was to be my first actual Cat 4 race with a good size field and some pretty big teams. Got on the line and was in the front row, looking back I could see 30+ racers in the group, and had only one other teammate in the bunch which was Mac. We talked that we would try and stick together in the top ten or so if we could to try and stay in the front and hope for a good placing. Well this was not a typical lenght crit, it was 35 laps for a total of 21 miles, mainly they do that so it will qualify for upgrade point since the USCF has guildlines for that. We get rolling and I am sitting about 7th or 8th wheel, right where I need to be, now I expected it to be fast, but not as fast as we were going. I was planning on just sitting in and going, but for some stupid reason, maybe inexperience, we slowed down on the climb on about lap 6 or so, and I took off to the front, hoping to take a few guys and maybe get a break, but that wasn't going to happen because we never got away, and by the time we hit the next lap coming up the hill I was shot, yeah and 29 more times around. I got shot off the back quickly and could never recover, so I just got it to a comfortable pace that I could handle and basically rode a time trial for as long as I could. Some laps later I got lapped, and noticed Mac was on the back of the pack, so I jumped on in front of him trying to help him get back with the group, well little did I know he was lapped as well. We worked for the next couple laps and a few more after that, lapped again, tried to get back on, but had nothing left. This time I picked up another rider and we worked for quite a bit as well. 5 laps to go and I would get lapped for a 3rd time. The nice thing about this course is there was no need to pull guys, so I was able to finish the race, one lap to go and I can see Mac going in the first turn, so I got on it and bridged up to him just to help him finish, and so the HBA guys could come across together. We both finished, not sure what place, but like I said we were so far behind it didn't matter. I was able to learn alot about racing in the 4's, and that my training for next year will be focused on doing shorter harder efforts, and how to recover quickly.
Results now posted, and I came in 19th Place out of 30 riders.
Up next is the 24 Hour MTB Race down in Boone next weekend, 4 man team, hoping that will be a great time, then 3 more MTB races and Cross season .
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