Velocity Stage Race: Day 1 - Stage 2 - Criterium

This was the first time I've ever done two races in a day so wasn't sure how my legs should be feeling. Thankfully the time trial was a really short one so recovery wasn't too much of an issue. Since this crit was the first one of the season I was glad it was a little shorter than the normal for our category.

The course was held at the Alberta Research Park in south Edmonton and looked like it was going to be a fairly technical course with plenty of turns. I noticed that the TT time had been posted so I rode over to take a look before I pre-rode the course. My result wasn’t as great as I would have liked it to be…but I wasn’t too hung up on it...it was my first TT ever and I had gone out as hard as I could.
Then I decided to do a few laps of the course to scout lines and such. The course was a really nice course with lots of turns and narrow sections in the first half. The second half was a long curving road right into a headwind then into a fairly long straightway to the Start/Finish line.
After a few laps on the course, I got out the trainer to spin the legs a little bit while the juniors raced. The legs were still feeling pretty good despite the hard effort I had done in the morning. After the junior race finished up I quickly changed wheels to my race set and walked over to the Start/Finish so I could start in a good place. I managed to get into the second row at the front which was pretty good so I could try to sit in for a bit and then see where I’m at.

I was fairly relaxed at the start and not too worried about how the crit would go, which was probably my biggest mistake. Really the only thing in my mind was to try to stay with the main pack and not get dropped. The race started and then it hit me...I was in my hardest gear when I switched wheel sets and forgot to check my gearing. All of a sudden I was trying to clip in with my cranks barely turning and the swarms of riders accelerating past me. In literally 5 seconds I was already near the back of the pack. I finally clipped in, shifted and accelerated to try and stay with the pack.
During the lap I managed to gain a bunch of spots and managed to conserve some energy through the strong headwinds. 4th lap in I managed to do a power sprint going into the straightway and get all the way to the front of the pack. I picked out Andrew and Mark in the pack so my goal was to try and sit in with them as Mark is a very powerful rider and Andrew is a very smart racer in the crits. As we went around the second S bend, Mark got pushed of fthe track by another rider taking the turn to wide. There was a major surge by the pack and I was trying hard to stay on a wheel. I knew that if I dropped a wheel I would be in trouble. The next lap I was already starting to redline and had trouble staying on a wheel. I let the gap open up too much and soon I was fighting off a headwind while trying to go as hard as I could. 15 minutes in I had already dropped a wheel and the main pack started getting away from me.

As I did another lap I saw another rider that had been dropped so I drafted him for a bit. Going into the next lap I called out that we could switch off trying to take pulls and try to get back to the pack. As we struggled through the wind another group caught up to us and soon we had a pace line of about 6 riders. I yelled back for everyone to take short pulls so we could try and close the distance to the main group.

Around the second last lap we heard the bell ring for final lap so I went out hard. What I had not realized is that we had just been lapped by a couple riders from Juventus and that we actually still had 2 laps to go. I went out hard the final lap and did the final spring for the finish line. Unfortunately most of us were pretty confused on whether or not we were still racing or not. There wasn’t much the organizers could do because Juventus had lapped up on the final lap at the finish line so they couldn’t really pull any riders out.

After the race…the results were pretty messed up. It was probably pretty hard to keep track of 51 riders on the course at the same time. After some discussions with the commisaires…the results were reviewed and corrected…although I still have a feeling they are not 100% correct.

I finished the crit without getting pulled but was pretty disappointed that I dropped a wheel and ended up getting lapped again. Although this time it was pretty much near the end of the race so not as bad as it could have been.

Oh well...first race of the season and there was still one race remaining.

- Kyle

Photo credit: Thomas Yip