New Bethlehem Criterium

New Bethleham Criterium: Cat 4 from Bikelink on Vimeo.

Highlights:
12:45 guy goes down (hard to tell what happens)

15:00 My move

16:15 Greg goes

21:40 back in the field

As much as I'm not a crit racer, (as a <140 lb "skinny guy", my element is anywhere the road is going up) I really enjoyed this crit. The roads are plenty wide, tons of room to maneuver and pass, plus the race is only a few miles from where I roll out of bed.

I crawled out at 8am to catch David, Jeff, and Frank in the Cat 5 race. The first time the pack rolled around, I saw David out in front with a several second gap. He looked very comfortable and sat near the front for most of the race. The first half I watched from turn 3, the small hill and false flat was taking its toll on the back part of the field. Riders were trickling off of the back constantly. It was here that 2 years ago I got dropped on my first ever road race in the Cat 5 field.

David had a good sprint at the end, good enough for 3rd in the Cat 5s. I'm sure if he had a better position coming into the final sprint, he would have placed even higher.

I still had 2-3 hours before my race, so I went back home to get breakfast and get ready. It was going to be a hot day, so hydrating would be important.

I rolled to the start with Greg and Roland. Greg usually does masters races, and I think he expected the Cat 4 field to be sketchy, dangerous, and slow. Last year, when Roland did the Masters 35+, he missed his clip in at the start and the field just rode away from him right from the gun.

There were no team plans, but we had a good cheering squad and were on our "home" course. My only goal was not to just sit in and wait for the field sprint which I usually can't contest anyway.



The pace felt pretty comfortable, both F&M and QCW had good team representation and did plenty of pace setting at the front. After the first few laps of sitting on the back, I moved up to the front around turn 3 and decided to push the pace. It wasn't intended as a solo attack, but when I looked back I was on my own. At that point I just decided to make a go of it, bury myself, and see how long it lasted.



I could hear the cheering section really going when I came around, and that was a little extra motivation. On the next lap, I saw Greg coming up, so I waited a bit and joined with him.



We rotated for a bit, and soon a third guy joined us. Unfortunately, at that point my efforts were catching up with me, and my pulls weren't enough to gain any more time. The three of us dangled off the front of the field for a while.



I slipped back into the field, and let myself recover for a bit. It was early enough in the race that I had plenty of time before thinking about the finish yet. Roland was still fresh, so I wanted to see if I could get him into position.



Greg moved us up, and for a while I followed him with Roland behind me. With 2 laps to go, I lost Greg's wheel and he went to the front to drive up the pace. On the last lap, I got separated from Roland so my leadout idea didn't come to fruition. I actually felt good at the finish, and moved up some spots, but I was coming from pretty far back so only just managed 18th. While not a big result, the race was a ton of fun, and I enjoyed helping to animate it a little. Check out the helmet cam video.

Can't wait until next year...