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Halifax Crit - CycleCriterium


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Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada
15C / 59F
Sunny
Total Time = 44m 30s
Overall Rank = 18/45
Age Group = C Class
Age Group Rank = 0/
Event warmup:

Rode to the event (about 15km) fairly easy and met up with the youth and juniors who were racing in the various events. Rode a couple of loops of the bike course before the first race (D and youth) and then watched the race. Was going to do a couple of laps to warmup but a couple of minor crashes by the youth had me making sure athletes were okay.
Bike
  • 44m 30s
  • 29 kms
  • 39.10 km/hr
Comments:

Started in the second line; pretty slow start up the first hill and into the first turn where the pace started to pickup. I was in the front ten or so at this point and the pace was feeling pretty good. I was working at an effort that felt just about right and the group seemed to have lots of solid bike handlers so I just sat in and waited for the first few laps to go by and the pace to drop a little. The tight turn was a little sketchy on a couple of laps when athletes came off their line but with mostly good bike handlers, nobody crashed out.

After a steady 3-4 laps, the pace dropped a little and it became a pretty standard crit; hard out of the corners, pretty easy on the straight sections and mostly just crusing in the peloton. I think we only dropped two or three athletes in the first couple of laps so we had a pretty big group. Since everyone seemed to be decent at handling, I drifted back a little and was sitting in the front half of the group for most of the race.

I was also trying to keep an eye on the two juniors I had doing the race; one was in the front group of three for the entire race and jumped in a breakaway at one point although they only got a small separation before being reeeled back in. The other was hanging out toward the back and I drifted back a few times to see how he was doing as he had crashed at this event last year but he looked comfortable and was happy just to sit in the big draft he was getting.

After checking on my athlete at the back, I was riding back up through the group and grabbed a wheel that was headed to the front; effort felt great so I followed his wheel to the front and when he peeled off, I tried to maintain the effort. Not sure what happened as when i looked back, I was about 15m off the front and nobody showed any indication of chasing. However, since we only about 20 minutes in, I knew there was no way I would stay clear for the rest of the race so I sat up and waited for the group to come back. When the group caught me, I sat back in top 20 and just rode along waiting for the last two laps.

At the last two laps call, the pace picked up a fair amount but I was pretty comfortable sitting in the top 20; things started to really stretch out and we had a nice train of about 10 pulling us along through the last two laps. On the last lap, my athlete who was sitting in the back went by and I tried to grab his wheel but he pulled away a little too quickly; in short order he was in the mix at the front and looking really strong. On the final turn, which is the technical one, someone came way off their line in front of me and I ended up slowing to avoid going down and probably dropped back to 30th. Started my sprint and managed to move through lots of the field before the line and managed to cross the line in 18th. My athlete who was at the front the whole time realized that he probably should have listened and not been at the front the whole time as he had nothing left for the sprint and finished around 30th but the athlete who was sitting at the back ended up finishing 3rd.
What would you do differently?:

Race a little more aggressively; I probably could have organized a small breakaway and tried to stay away from the group or actually gone for it when I was off the front. However, for the first drafting race I've done since 2009, I was very happy with the result.
Post race
Warm down:

Rode home.




Last updated: 2012-05-28 12:00 AM
Biking
00:44:30 | 29 kms | 39.10 km/hr
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 15/45
Performance: Good
Wind: Little
Course: 4 corner crit; mostly good pavement. Slight downhill out of turn 1 and slight climb out of turn 3 and toward finish. One technical turn (4).
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Good
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized?
Events on-time?
Lots of volunteers?
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]

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2012-06-01 9:05 AM

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Subject: Halifax Crit
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