After getting home around 1 and wolfing down some grub, I did manage to lay down for about 45 mins for a power snooze. That really helped!
I got up feeling refreshed, and combined with my iced coffee on the way to downtown, I was feeling pretty pumped.
Had plenty of time to get ready, do about 10 minutes on the trainer, followed by 15 minutes of pre-riding the course.
Legs were feeling pretty relaxed. Course is so nice too, very smooth roads and wide turns.
Same as last year, two block rectangle loop in front of the Shaw building downtown.
Fairly large pack of cat 5's, maybe 30-35 guys. Bit of a headwind on the backside, which would serve to keep the group together the entire race.
The pace was quite slow. I had no trouble keeping in the pack, and I'm sure most would agree.
Nobody attacked. It must have been quite boring to watch. I was content sitting at the very back of the pack the whole time too! Learned that lesson from last year.
For the one and only prime point, I found myself 4th wheel going into the 2nd last turn. Callum and a Niklas guy were up front chatting. Nobody was going quite yet.
Final turn those two went for it, and my plan was get on Callums wheel, but in the turn I got boxed out by the 3rd wheel guy. Made a brief attempt to bridge but the sprint was out of my reach. Callum took it.
We still had 10 laps to go or so and I settled back to the back.
I was still feeling good and the race intensity never really picked up. One lap to go and I start making my way up. Get to about 15th place going into the 2nd last turn, and give'r...
I passed a lot of guys, but saw Callum take the win right ahead of me.
I ended up 6th place, earning another 6 upgrade points.
I gotta say, that might have been the easiest points I ever earned!
Lessons learned:
For this particular crit, I should have started moving up a little sooner.
I had marked Callum but somehow lost sight of him near the end. Turns out he woulda been the right guy to follow.
Here is my total point breakdown so far:
Crit: 10
RR: 6
ITT/HC: 0
==========
Total: 16
I need 30 to upgrade to Cat 4, by the end of this year, and there's only 2 more road races left :-(
Oh well. Off for now. Bergen Hills tomorrow.
Congratz on the points dude!
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