Aaron's Grant Park Criterium
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Aaron's Grant Park Criterium - CycleCriterium
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Comments: Well, this was my first crit. I've been riding with the Aaron's Club for a couple of years but only as a means to fitness for triathlon. Group rides seem largely populated by Cat 3 and 4's and this crowd can be merciless about dropping slower riders. I raced 'novice' Cat 5 - Slowest heat of the day besides the juniors - 35 minutes plus three laps. Horn went off and pace was brisk immediately. There were Prime's offered for a lot of the laps, inclu. the first one - the upshot was that a couple of the stronger riders rode off the front from the git-go. I started towards the back of the pack and gradually worked my way up as the race went on. The group seemed to splinter w/in a couple of laps and I wound up in the first chase group about 25-30 seconds down. Group was unable to organize a challenge to front three so we raced ourselves for final position. Ifinished 9th but had the same time as the fifth place rider. To summarize, I haven't worked so hard in a race in a long time. . These crits hurt! I was kind of bashful at the start and again when it came time to chase down the leaders but I am chalking that up to crit inexperience. I think the legs have enough spring to race with the front runners at this level and next time. . What would you do differently?: Go out faster and look to attack. Post race
What limited your ability to perform faster: These bike races are a very different kind of animal. It definitely takes a little experience to race efficiently. Last updated: 2007-09-08 12:00 AM
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2007-09-08 8:46 PM |
General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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United States
Aaron's Cycling/L5Flyers
85F / 29C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 9/19
Age Group = men's Cat 5
Age Group Rank = 0/
Showed up good and early to get acclimated to the course.
Did a couple of laps to see if I could learn anything about the course. Didn't stretch or anything, just kind of kept my eyes open to see if I was doing anything wrong.