We rolled in about 8:15 because Salem was doing the Junior 10-12 race at 9:30 and that way we could get all setup and watch him race before he headed off to Boy Scout Camp for a week. His race went well with 10 juniors showing up between the ages of 10 and 14 both boys and girls. He took 4th Place in the 10-12 age group, and ended up bringing home a Silver Medal for the age 10-12 boys race, great job.
The rest of the day also went well for the rest of the HBA racing team as we have Chris Eastburn taking home the Gold Medal in the Masters 50+ as well as a Bronze in the 40+, Rob McKillip taking the Gold in the Cat 5's, Dustin Salter with Silver in the Cat 5's, and Macklin Scheldrup with the Win and Gold Medal in the Juniors 17-18.
My race was at 2 in the afternoon, so about 1 o'clock I got ready, hopped on the trainer for a bit and warmed up. Showing up to the line I could see a great turnout for the Cat 4 race, 40 riders in all. I really had no plan as my training has been lacking this year, just hang on as long as I could really and go from there. We started of with a preem on the first lap, so that picked up the pace right away with one guy going off the front for his prize, and noone really chasing him for that, but the pace was fast from the gun. Mack try's to launch early on and I was sitting about 5th or 6th wheel and could see him go, and noone responded, probably due to it being so early in the race, so I jump out of the saddle and ride up to him bringing another HBA rider with me and we stayed out for a little bit but was caught after about a lap or so. Sat back in with the group about mid pack and figured I would just sit in and hold on now. Well about 1/2 way through the race a few attcks happened and I just was unable to keep the pace and slowly fell off the back with a few other riders. I would end up riding about 3 laps solo before finally being able to bridge up to another guy and work togther which worked out well for us. We ended getting lapped with around 7 laps to go, so we jumped on the back of the pack and tried to settle in for a bit and recover. One thing I was noticing was how poorly some of the guys were going through the corners, and not able to hold a line, pretty scary when you have a group of 30+ riders. So I stayed to the inside of the corners, tried staying out of the wind and hung on till one lap to go. I was off the back again, as were others, and good thing because the second to last corner there was a pretty good crash and unfortunatly it took out Mack, he was ok, just a little shooken up from the crash. I was able to come across the line in 30th place out of 34 finishers.
If I learned anything from this race it is to sit in as long as you can, and that is what I have a hard time doing. Oh well that is all part of racing, so now other then a few more Night at the Oval races I am hanging up my road bike and looking forward to finishing up the IMBCS mountain bike series and then into cross season.
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| Gold Pointe Fitness Club Criterium 2009 |
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