Spring Fling Series #1 Cat 5
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Spring Fling Series #1 Cat 5 - Cycle
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Comments: This was a Cat 5 only race with a 20 minute time span. What they do is time our first couple laps then announce to us as we're flying by the start how many more laps we have. So after two laps they tell us 7 more. There were about 18 of us in the Cat 5 race. I had 2 teammates in there with me, both younger and more experienced, one being out of shape by his standards who also raced the Cat 4/5 race earlier which was 40 minutes. I started in the 2nd row hoping I could just stay on someones wheel. I am not great at bike handling especially with cornering so I knew where my challenge would be. You basically start with one foot clipped in, the other not just as you're waiting at a stop light. Except when the gun goes off, the objective is to clip in as fast as you can and not lose the opportunity to stay with the lead group. I did that fairly well as the lead group was probably 9-10 deep that first lap. But after corner #3 I started to fall back as I was not as fast around the corners as I would liked to have been. So basically the next 8 laps I had no wheel. I was probably sitting in 8th or 9th place and there was no one on my wheel most of that time. It's like there was the fast guys, then me, then everybody else. I could see the lead group across the field, we were at a campground and they slowly pulled ahead of me little by little. I just tried to keep pedaling and taking those corners as fast as I could without having the bike slip out from under me. I could hear a friend of mine who races Cat 3 shout out "stay down Reece". I must have been sitting up a bit and not looking very aerodynamic. All I could do was just ride hard and see if those in front of me would tire out. There was a "preem" lap midway through but you had to be top 4 to get those points so I knew that wouldn't be me. Around lap 5 or 6 I was coming towards the start line and the marshall waived me to the left because there were two riders picking themselves up after a crash. I'm not sure if there was only two but that was two places better for me at the finish. So finally on lap 8 I caught up to a guy but I wasn't sure if he was one of the original front pack riders or a slower guy for which I was about to lap. Anyhow what he did was get on my wheel and at this point I didn't care much to play a cat and mouse game so I just rode hard to see if I could drop him and of course I could not as at 6'-2" tall and 190 lbs I provide a pretty darn good slip stream for wheel suckers. So I pulled him though lap 9, the final lap, and he bolted ahead of me just after the last turn. I then accelerated, a bit too late though and not only nearly caught him, but two other riders ahead. He beat me by half a wheel. Oh well. My best laps was actually the last one, I averaged 25.0 mph pulling that dude around! Not bad for me and my road bike, not quite as aero at the TT but I'm still happy with that. What would you do differently?: As this was my first crit I'm not sure I would have done anything differently. I don't know if crits are for me but I might do the series just for the experience. They add up points for each week and give awards after the 5th week. I actually finished in 5th place so I GOT POINTS in my first crit! I think I'll try again this next Saturday and maybe do Cat 4/5 since it's 40 minutes instead of 20 minutes. Maybe there will be some out of shape guys there I can run down after I lose the wheel due to my slow cornering...... From an age group perspective even though Cat 5 is all ages, I was the only person over 40 to make the top 10 and the average age of those other 9 riders was just under 28. I was hangin' with the young thundering herd! ![]() Post race
Warm down: Took an easy lap, that's pretty much it. What limited your ability to perform faster: Bike handling skills, kind of need those in crits. Event comments: This is a fun event to start off cycling season. Very low key, but well organized. Last updated: 2016-03-04 12:00 AM
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United States
Revolution Racing LLC
68F / 20C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 5/18
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
This was my first ever criterium so I had no great expectations going in, other than the experience and to not crash. The Spring Fling is a series that goes for 5 consecutive Saturdays. Even though I primarily do triathlons, I thought I'd give crits a go just for the experience and also to be more of "one of the guys" since I'm on a cycling team.
I tried to get there by 12:00 so I could maybe do the Cat 4/5 race but I got there just as they were about to start. No way I was doing to ride 40 minutes with no warmup. I got registered and watched some of the Cat 4/5 guys go by. We had 3 guys in that race, it was a pretty big field for February anyhow. Normally it's cold weather gear this time of year but it was 68-70 degrees out, great weather for riding.
About 2:30 I did a warmup ride, rode to the lake and back a few times, about 11 miles over 40 minutes easy pace with a few pick ups.