JBN Criterium (Just Be Natural)

JBN Criterium Cat 4 from Bikelink on Vimeo.

Highlights:

5:00 first Lamprey sighting, moving up
7:00 more Lamprey riders moving up
9:40 I move up to the front
11:20 more butt shots
20:50 Roland and Greg come up
22:10 Jeff and I chatting
22:30 then Jeff goes
25:30 Greg
26:20 Getting together
27:20 together and towards the front
31:20 Greg follows up to Roland
34:15 Greg pulling the pack along
35:30 Note how much louder the wind noise gets when the cameraman pulls out of the side of the field and hits the full wind. Gives a relative sense for those who don't race how much more effort that takes.
36:15 I follow another guy when he goes off the front, but don't get anywhere
37:55 Jeff and Greg together
40:00 Me moving up, things are starting to get fast, looking for the rest of the guys
42:10 Two Bikeline/LWA move up quickly, and things string out for the bell lap
43:00 Cameraman is sitting behind eventual winner from F&M
43:15 I move up, hoping that it will somehow help Greg, Jeff, or Roland, but I'm not looking back. I'm probably too impatient and go too soon, it's that Pavlovian response from the bell lap. I think that I only manage to bring the camerman along. Things get rearranged on the backside hill and I slip back.
44:40 Jeff comes up to top 10 or so, is that Roland next to him?
45:30 F&M guy swings left to open up his sprint for the win
45:42 A Bikeline/LWA goes down at the finish line

Having spectators is great, you can definitely hear the "GO LAMPREY!" on every lap around!

As far as criteriums go, this was well ridden with smooth riding and generally good bike handling. Unfortunately one broken collar bone at the finish line, may have been a case of looking down instead of up during the final sprint.

It was a fast one as well. I recorded an average of 25.9 mph, which is I believe the fastest Cat 4 crit I've done, up there with the Thursday night crits. Having a wide open, smooth, and flowing course really helped, I'm sure.

Positioning is still the hardest part of criterium racing. That was fun, we're getting better as a group and figuring it out as we go.