2011 road racing has officially begun with the first collegiate race of the year. I decided to jump into the Bs, as they are supposedly equivalent to 3/4 racing and that sounded like it would be good experience.
I was not super thrilled about getting up at 4 am in the cold and dark to drive out to New Jersey, especially when the weather was threatening to rain. When we got to the TT course, the roads were soaked and kept spitting more rain. But, in one of those miraculous events, just as the first riders were hitting the course, the clouds rolled out, and the warm sun dried the roads quickly.
From Lehigh, we had 3 car loads of people and bikes. A pretty good turnout I thought, but some other teams like F&M had 30+, spread throughout the categories.
Brandon on his way to 3rd in the C2 division:
A 2 mile flat TT is not exactly my forte, but I wanted to see what I could do. There is no way to get "comfortable" for that kind of effort, I was all over the bike, in the drops, on the hoods, in the "invisible aero bars", but it was really tough hitting a good consistent effort level. With a full aero cockpit, I've been able to hold 24+ mph for 10 miles, but struggled today at only 23.5 average over 2 miles. I think the aero stuff really does make a huge difference, plus I'm not quite where I was at the end of the season last year. I do like the fact that collegiate doesn't allow any aero equipment, it really levels the playing field. Good enough for 22 out of 41, and for this event, I'm happy with that.
Eric did some big turns at the front of the C2 crit and helped Brandon out for more points:
For the crit I started with moderate goals, work on positioning and sprinting, the two most important things for a flat four corner crit. The race started off pretty fast, and combined with the high winds that afternoon, finding shelter was crucial. I started off in the back, like usual, but the accordian affect there was brutal, I had to almost sprint out of every corner to stay in the field. Fortunately the front finishing straight was sheltered from wind by the stadium, and the downwind leg had a slight uphill which made moving up very easy. The road was wide, and I could get just about as far up in the field as I wanted. Riding in the top 10-15 was much smoother and easier then sitting at the back.
Early in the race, one rider got a relatively large gap solo off the front, and soon after we came through and the bell rang for an intermediate sprint. I had no intention of going for it, planning on just saving myself for the final sprint. But one by one, the riders in front of me pulled off to the escape the wind, and on the final turn I found myself 3-4 wheels back. What the heck, I have to go for it now, the positioning was perfect. I started accelerating and got past them relatively easily, I was moderately surprised, as I'm generally not a sprinter in any regard, whatsoever. It may have been a bit easier, as the solo guy was still gone and picked up the first place points, so there was less motivation in the field to scrap for 2nd place points.
Fortunately, the pace eased up after this, and I sat in for a while to recover. It was a short race, though, only 45 minutes, so nobody was waiting around and a fair number of attacks went constantly. First race, everyone wants to test their legs out. F&M was very active and constantly sending people off the front. Several others in the field seemed to be very worried about these solo moves, and kept trying to organize more chase effort. Considering the massive winds, I didn't think anyone had a ghost of a chance solo, so I did my personal duty and neatly followed wheels.
Patience, maybe I'm finally learning....
As expected, everything came together with 5 to go. The pace ramped up, and I concentrated on just trying to maintain a good position. I came into the final upwind stretch a little further back then I wanted, but I really wanted to stay sheltered for that stretch of the course. I felt really good coming out of the final turn, and started passing way on the right side, but everyone went wide, and I ran out of road between the field and the cones. I sat up too early, as I definitely think I had more sprint left. I think I probably managed top 10, but I haven't seen the results yet.
So a very satisfying race, the Collegiate Bs actually felt easier then most Cat 4 crits I've done. I think the course, with wind, and small hill really helped in that regard.
The weirdest part of the race was some guy, who for the last 3 laps of the race, kept yelling to everyone asking how many laps were left, and if it was time to sprint yet. Every time we came around, he apparently forgot to check the lap cards. Every time....
Oh, and the guy with the faded denim bike shorts. Those were, surreal.
Tomorrow is points race in the rain, this will be interesting.
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