First race in the can.

I competed in my first race of the season on Sunday, a training crit south of Portland. I'd only done a couple of crits before in my life so I was kind of unsure what to expect. Of course I've heard plenty of horror stories about gnarly crashes and loss of skin so I was a bit nervous heading out with Mad Mike Sunday morning during a steady rain. In my nightmares nervous crit + wet, greasy corners = sure death. Thankfully, by the time we got there the rain had stopped for the most part we we would only be dealing with damp pavement. Also, the biggest team that usually dominated the race had only a few riders there because of a race in Mass. So with a smaller, slightly less agressive field I figured I would come out ok.

Warm-up consisted of riding with the first race of the day, the B race. Mike and I stuck to the back of the pack and tried to keep from getting sprayed in the face from the riders in front. About 3/4 of the way through the B race, I began to worry that maybe I wouldn't have the legs today because I was having a hard time keeping up with some of the accelerations with the B's. Surely the A race would quickly shell me out the back.

About five minutes after the B race the A race started to immediate attacks. With a fairly small field I felt obligated on many occasions to reel the attacks in despite the fact that there were several obviously stronger riders there. I'll chalk it up to my inexperience and being a sucker. Live and learn. During the race there were three premes. The first would be for a cool SMCC hat (the sponsor team), the second $5 (not much but when the entry fee is only $10 its not so bad) and finally one series point. When we got the bell for the first preem (hat) I had no intention of going for it but coming down to the final 200m I found myself in perfect position so sprinted in for a fairly easy win. After that it was mostly paceline type stuff with a few attacks that would be quickly reeled in. Nothing too strenuous but still a pretty tough tempo, especially coming out of the corners.

When I heard the bell for preme no. 2 I didn't hear what it was for but was banking on the $5 so I immediately decided to go for it. Coming out of the final turn before the sprint I found myself in poor position leading everybody out (rookie mistake) so I soft pedaled for a bit to see what would happen. I started to hear things happening behind me so I kicked into gear and went as hard as I could. Quickly, though, I caught a glimpse of someone pulling up on my right hand side. I didn't think I had everything left in the tank but I dug a bit deeper and kicked it up a notch. Unfortunately, the guy on my right kept coming and I thought for sure I was going to lose to him. With 10 or so meters to go it became clear that we were going to cross neck and neck so I immediately started thinking about all of the sprint stages of the tour I've seen and how they always do the little bike shove as they cross the line to pick up the added few inches. I had never attempted this move before and really didn't know how to do it properly but at the last second performed it perfectly (in my mind at least, I'm sure it was ugly for the few spectators) and nabbed the second preme by 6".

Totally blown, I decided to play it safe for a while and try to recover. Thankfully for me, soon after that Mike made a move off of the front with 12 laps to go. Not wanting to help reel Mike in, I sat in as much as possible and soft pedaled when I was at the front trying to give both Mike and my legs a break. It ended up working with Mike coming in a solid minute ahead of the field. For the final sprint I once again found myself in good position right behind a strong cat 3 rider who started the sprint from about 200m. I pulled around him at about 100m and thought by god that I had a chance but with 15m to go two guys blew my doors off with perfectly timed sprints for the line. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Next time I'll wait a bit longer to go for it.

All in all I think it was a pretty successful day for a guy who doesn't consider himself a real sprinter. Of course we'll see what happens next time when the rest of the field is there! Back of the pack I'm guessing. Either way, it'll be fun.