In US bike racing theres a pretty famous set of races back east somewhere that tons of pros and elites like to do and they call it "SUPERWEEK". I've never gotten to go to these and probably never will but this week my Idaho racing schedule has gifted me with my own mini Idaho version of this. I'm 3/4 of the way through 4 criteriums that happened to fall in a one week span.
Here's how it's shaken down sofar:
7/19-Twilight Criterium, Boise--This year I was relegated out of the big dance under the lights and raced in the cat2 only race. With the course change for this year and racing in broad daylight it was still a crit but it sure didn't feel like Twilight. With having no Pros/1s in the field I figured I'd have a shot at a top finish and raced with that in mind by trying to conserve my energy. Then towards the end I thought I was jumping into the winning move but when the other guys sat up I was suddenly stranded in no man's land off the front. As I startred dangling out there they called a prime for $40 and I figured "what the heck, that's more than my entry fee" and drilled it for a lap to get the cash. As I crossed the line taking the $$ they anounced 10 laps to go and I realized I was toast, so I sat in trying to recover and ended up taking 18th place. Not terrible but not nearly what I had hoped for.
7/20-State Championship Criterium, Hidden Springs--The next day I got to be mixed in with the cat 1s again for what I figured would be a tougher race than the night before. I stayed in the pack again saving energy but unfortunately the day would be won by an early break off the front. So I hung on to try out my sprinting legs. I'm pretty proud of the way the end of the race when for me: I pulled off near text-book crit stataegy by putting myself near the front and moving up one spot every lap (like: 7 laps to go be in 7th wheel, 6 laps to go be in 6th wheel, ect.). By the final series of corners I was in 3rd wheel and pulled off a great sprint to come around the Cal Giant Berries guy in front of me and hold off another dude from coming around me to get 2nd in the field sprint! First in the sprint was the Bob's team's designated sprinter so I guess that's still pretty good to come in just behind him. I ended up 6th, one spot out of the $$...ouch.
7/22-Local Holt Arena Crit, Pocatello--This is part of a summer long crit series and coming into this one I had a good lead in the series but 2nd place was the very tough Sam K. who's been dominating me in every other type of local race (TTs and hill climbs). In the previous races Sam figured he didn't like trying to beat me in the group sprints and I learned that if he gets away even slightly he'd TT away and darn near lap me. So for this one we ended up playing some serious games with each other. It played out just like we were on the velodrome, I'd sit on his wheel and he'd come to almost a standstill trying to force me to lead, then he's throw down a HUGE attack and we'd repeat this just about every lap. The other guys just took off and ended up lapping us TWICE! In the end I nipped him and held my lead, but brought other guys back into contention for the series:( Crazy enough that has to have been simultaniously the slowest and most painful crit I've ever done.
7/26-Allan Butler Criterium, Idaho Falls-- This one is still to come and I'm expecting big things from it. My crit skills are nicely sharpened and I think the field will be mostly Utah guys that probably wont take me seriously because they'll just figure I'm too skinny to race crits. With any luck I'll get to prove them wrong.
Here's how it's shaken down sofar:
7/19-Twilight Criterium, Boise--This year I was relegated out of the big dance under the lights and raced in the cat2 only race. With the course change for this year and racing in broad daylight it was still a crit but it sure didn't feel like Twilight. With having no Pros/1s in the field I figured I'd have a shot at a top finish and raced with that in mind by trying to conserve my energy. Then towards the end I thought I was jumping into the winning move but when the other guys sat up I was suddenly stranded in no man's land off the front. As I startred dangling out there they called a prime for $40 and I figured "what the heck, that's more than my entry fee" and drilled it for a lap to get the cash. As I crossed the line taking the $$ they anounced 10 laps to go and I realized I was toast, so I sat in trying to recover and ended up taking 18th place. Not terrible but not nearly what I had hoped for.
7/20-State Championship Criterium, Hidden Springs--The next day I got to be mixed in with the cat 1s again for what I figured would be a tougher race than the night before. I stayed in the pack again saving energy but unfortunately the day would be won by an early break off the front. So I hung on to try out my sprinting legs. I'm pretty proud of the way the end of the race when for me: I pulled off near text-book crit stataegy by putting myself near the front and moving up one spot every lap (like: 7 laps to go be in 7th wheel, 6 laps to go be in 6th wheel, ect.). By the final series of corners I was in 3rd wheel and pulled off a great sprint to come around the Cal Giant Berries guy in front of me and hold off another dude from coming around me to get 2nd in the field sprint! First in the sprint was the Bob's team's designated sprinter so I guess that's still pretty good to come in just behind him. I ended up 6th, one spot out of the $$...ouch.
7/22-Local Holt Arena Crit, Pocatello--This is part of a summer long crit series and coming into this one I had a good lead in the series but 2nd place was the very tough Sam K. who's been dominating me in every other type of local race (TTs and hill climbs). In the previous races Sam figured he didn't like trying to beat me in the group sprints and I learned that if he gets away even slightly he'd TT away and darn near lap me. So for this one we ended up playing some serious games with each other. It played out just like we were on the velodrome, I'd sit on his wheel and he'd come to almost a standstill trying to force me to lead, then he's throw down a HUGE attack and we'd repeat this just about every lap. The other guys just took off and ended up lapping us TWICE! In the end I nipped him and held my lead, but brought other guys back into contention for the series:( Crazy enough that has to have been simultaniously the slowest and most painful crit I've ever done.
7/26-Allan Butler Criterium, Idaho Falls-- This one is still to come and I'm expecting big things from it. My crit skills are nicely sharpened and I think the field will be mostly Utah guys that probably wont take me seriously because they'll just figure I'm too skinny to race crits. With any luck I'll get to prove them wrong.
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