Double Pain, Double Fun

Our local race venue hosted another criterium today.  The race was originally scheduled for June, but some permit problems forced a delay.  As a result of this delay, and because people are getting tired at the end of the season, the race didn’t have as many participants as races around here usually attract.  Still, many of the top, really fit racers showed up.   I decided to race two races for the first time.  I did my usual Cat 4 race, and then two hours later I entered my first masters (over 40) race.  I was worried about the latter, since the old guys around here are terribly strong and fast, and their races are typically much faster than the Cat 4 races.

Race #1 went well.  I rode a tactically smart race, staying near the front, but never attacking hard.  There were a few attacks, but the race was strangely slow–at times we were rolling along at 20mph on the flat stretches.  Everyone was keenly watching the competition, waiting for someone else to make a move.  As a result, it ended up with a field sprint.  Right before the bell lap, my leadout guy told me when he would start his push, and where he would pull over to let me start my sprint.  One lap later, approaching the end, I waited patiently for my leadout, but he had found himself stuck behind the pack and had to sprint his way up to me.  Because of this, the leadout was a little slower than optimum, but it was still better teamwork than we usually show.  I managed to take 9th.

Between races, I rode home (one of the benefits of living less than 2 miles from the course!), put on a fresh, dry uniform, ate a couple of energy bars, and then rode back to the course.  The masters team captain, BW, came up to us before the race started and told us what to do.  “Kaiser,” he said to me, “race smart.  Stay in the pack.”  This race was not a lot faster than the Cat 4 race (24 vs 23 mph average), but it did seem to be somewhat smoother, with all of the racers knowing what they were supposed to do, and with almost none of the dangerous riding that marks Cat 4 races.  There were several attacks, and the pack managed to bring most of them back.  About halfway through, a large group got a good sized gap, and, since we had two teammates up ahead, the rest of us started blocking.  One guy on our team asked if we should try to bring the break back, since the teammates we had in the break were not our strongest.  “No,” said BW, “we don’t attack.”  I thought that was a nice gesture, even though both of our guys ended up getting spit off the back of the break and ended up finishing deep in the main pack.

At five laps to go, there were only four guys left in the breakaway, so we started to chase them down.  We didn’t have quite enough time left to take back all of the time they had gained on us, but we did a good job nevertheless.  At two laps to go, I helped BW chase, putting him in a good position to work for the main pack sprint.  He managed to take first in the pack sprint, good for fifth overall, and I took fifth, good for ninth overall despite cramping quads in the sprint.  I actually felt better during this race than in the earlier one.  I was also quite pleased to perform so well with the fast guys, especially since many of the masters are Cat 3 or above.  Two top ten finishes in one day!