2012 Crit #2: Dothan Cityfest

Ok, it appears I need to learn to write shorter; however, since I already drafted this thing up I'll post it as is ;)

2012 Dothan Cityfest Criterium

There was a shudder that woke me from my dreams.  I knew it had been something loud and forceful, but it was dead silent the moment I realized my conciousness.  I think the cat fell off the piano again.  Long slivers of cold white light across my room from the streetlamp revealed the familiar, and a Bici kit on the floor reminded me why I was up.  Dang, was it 4am already?!  I sat up and asked myself the same question I do before every cold winter ride, early training session and race: Is this what I really want to do?  I can’t say I really answered the question right then and there…nevertheless, I was out the door with an equally groggy Hanh and a bowl of oatmeal before any doubts could set in.  About halfway to Homewood I called Jacob and let him know I was down the road.  I missed his house on my first pass up the street, but eventually found another soul willing to suffer on two wheels for a hobby.  Off to Dothan!

The next 3-4 hours was strategy, prep talk and twitter updates on Flanders.  I was really hoping my day would go better than Cancellara’s.  The drive was uneventful thanks to the fog and we arrived in Dothan in time to secure a nice shady spot for our rollers and chairs.  Tubbs had planned two rides for the day so we quickly got to warming up for the Masters criterium while I rode the course and found all the fellow Birminghamians.  Mike Garner was also getting a nice long warmup prior to his race and seemed super focused, so I tried not to disturb his concentration.  ST3 Cycling also showed up early and in semi-full force as a few key members were missing due to injury or other races, so I knew it was going to be a fun day.

The Cat 4 criterium was at 11:45, but the sun hadn’t really started beating down just yet.  Our field included only 13 preregistered riders, but enough showed up the day of to bring our field to 23.  My biggest goal for the day was to try and ride the laziest criterium possible…I didn’t want to lead anything out and I surely didn’t want to get into a breakaway.

Well, that worked pretty well for some of the early laps.  But after the first 10 minutes there were a few people making quicker accelerations onto the starting hill and I couldn’t help but to jump up and try to dictate the pace a little.  I did make a point of just sitting in at the front.  No hard pulls, no sprints, no counterattacks – but I did jump on the wheel of every rider that felt eager enough to take a stab at it. If something got away, I wanted to enjoy the free ride; this was especially the case on the 2^nd part of the climb as I knew everyone who followed suit would be working harder to keep up.  Alan of ST3 was generous to put in a pull at the front (and at a consistent pace, too). I swear, some of the other riders would go 400-500 watts for all of five seconds then sit up and not make way for anyone to follow through (and the 2^nd rider back never offered to do so either).  This became increasingly popular at the 8-lap to go count.

At about 20 minutes into the race I got into a two-man break with a rider in a black jersey (team?). Many of the teams had similar jerseys, so I forget who it was in the break. Regardless, the teammate of the rider in our break worked to pull the field back up.  I’m not sure if this is on purpose or not, but the last criterium I raced the same thing happened… funny.  Well, several more unexciting laps went by and I continued to get mini-gaps on the downhill where most people stopped pedaling. I love railing the turns so that may have helped, too.

On 3 laps to go there was another one of those random/fruitless accelerations that looked like a breakaway attempt and I refused to jump on. The last dozen had gone nowhere so I watched as a rider rolled off the front.  From what I had been told, the field tends to speed up in the last couple laps anyways so I figured we’d catch up in a few.  Well, the field didn’t speed up.  And nobody came around front of me.  I think at some point I looked back and asked if we were really going to let him get away.  In the second to last lap Reuben of ST3 did what they had planned all along and scooted up to sit on my wheel.  Having looked into the field a few times early on it looked like he had sat several deep to save up for the finale.  At this point I had to choose to try to sprint and bridge the gap to the breakaway (now about 10 seconds up), or just keep a manageable pace and secure my legs for the field sprint.  I picked up the pace a little but it looks like everyone was set to sit on so I tried to see what I could do to get Reuben up to the front for the second half of the last lap.  Bingo!

With that, he led the pace hard down the final downhill and into the turn with me on his wheel and we beat the field for the line.  2^nd on the day was not what I came for, but it was a relief not to screw up my race entirely this time.  It would appear that I learn more from not winning, and watching the winning break walk away with the gold will help me fine tune which efforts I choose to chase in the future.  I have to hand it to Reuben who rode strong AND smart taking 3^rd in his first Cat 4 race (and maybe 2^nd criterium ever?).  Alan rode well also, finishing 13^th after doing good work for his teammate.

Part Deux: The other races & drive home

So with that the day was over…NOT!!! The thing I love about crits (thus far) is that at my level you finish one exciting event to crack open a cold one and watch several more.  I got into my comfy spot to do cool-down on the rollers and yell at Justin Bynum, Kevin Pawlik, and Jacob Tubbs race for Tria in the 2/3’s.  Justin was favored for the win and did so in fantastic style.  Kevin pulled an Andy Crater and bridged a gigantic gap at probably 400 watts for a solid 1:30 to let the break know that he was feeling alright and that his feeling weren’t hurt that they didn’t invite him.  He then retreated to the field to let them know that the breakaway is totally over-rated.  Tubbs put on a spectacular pain face and took a second serving of criterium rations.

The pro/1/2 was just as much fun to watch with Frank Travieso of Team Cocos putting the hurt on a field of 54 competing for a $10,000 purse that paid 25 deep.  It was really great to watch the race unfold as Cocos, Latino Cycling Team, Team Mountain Khakis, Team United Healthcare, Competitive Cyclist and Herring Gas made moves.  I thought Kenda/5-Hour Energy was pre-registered, but maybe I was only wishing.  Brian Toone rode well (his race report here) and Justin Bynum helped himself to some more lactic acid finishing ahead of a dozen other riders.  Andy Crater rode like a yo-yo and was great entertainment to watch.  In one of his breakaways he put 25 meters on the field on a single downhill stretch and closed the remaining 25 to the break in the turn without pedaling.  In another break he clipped his pedal in the same turn and gave all of us a scare, but made it through safe and sound.  There’s no substitute for experience when that happens.

At the end of the day we made our way to Arby’s, then home.  I got to see the largest ROOSTER in the south, and made it home to the same scene at which I left.