2009 Virginia Senior State Champsionship Criterium

Posted by Dan on 24. June 2009 02:34

This weekend was all about state championships of various types. Saturday, Team Nature's Path brought us the Virginia Senior State Championship Criterium in Richmond. Temps were supposed to be 95 with a heat index of 100+.

In attendance for the big event was Steve K., Wick, Kyle, Cal Cycling Team's Jarrett Streebin and me (and my entourage). At least one of us would be in each of the Cat 5, 4 and 3 races, ensuring anyone going home with a medal at the end of the day could rest assured they earned it.

First up was Steve Knott in the Cat 5 race. Steve would be the day's first victim of circumstances beyond his control. Everyone (except me) brought their B bikes to this very technical crit course, given them that sense of security in knowing their good ride wouldn't be trashed if (when) someone did something stupid. So Steve set out on his bike to realize that the brief downhills were significant enough to warrant full 53/39 chainrings instead of the compact set he had on. He ran out of gear on the downhills and that repeatedly caused gaps that were hard to cover over and over again. Fotunately, that was the extent of the aforementioned circumstances.



The team's next race was the Cat 4 race, one with which I am intimately familiar. Today's objective was a) do no work, b) bridge to any promising breaks and c) be ready for the bunch sprint. We did 50 minutes which equates to 20 miles or so at a pace of 25+ mph. My normalized power was 277 which is pretty decent for a crit. During our 50 minutes we saw a few unsuccessful breaks and a few split fields. Jarret, Wick and I hung out in the safe zone - not necesesarily near the front, but far enough from the back that we weren't killing ourselves on each turn. The exciting part, of course, was immediately after the 180 degree turn on the bell lap. I searched around for a promising wheel and found the race favorite's. Seemed like a good idea to stick to it like glue and maybe take him at the line. What I didn't expect was that he'd slow and wait for his own wheel to come by. When it did, he darted right and I was immediately boxed in - I had all of 5 feet in front of me and would have to give the right or left guy a few feet in order to get around. Unfortunately, the line came up too fast and I the best I could do is to fill in that 5 feet and hope for a good finish. Wick was in an even worse position - directly behind me. I finished 10th, Wick 13th and Jarrett 29th. The lesson I'll take away from this race is simply this: When it comes down to the sprint and you don't see a gap, make one and make it fast.



We left the course and the 3s moved in for warm-up. Kyle was out for a win. He appeared to be in good form so it was likely he'd get it. Their race was a bit faster and tended to fragment easily. Kyle did a great job staying right where he needed to be - near the front but not on it, not killing himself in the break but working hard enough to reel them in. With two laps to go, more of those circumstances beyond one's control reared their ugly head and Kyle was bumped/pushed into another rider (Josh Goyet) and broke a spoke, taking him out one lap before the big sprint, which he was certain to win.

And that ended our Championship Saturday on the West Creek Parkway in Richmond. You can see full race results on the promoter's website.

Thanks to Lydia for taking loads pictures, many of which are featured on GamJams.