Tour de Bloom (Crit)

We had made camping reservations a long time ago in Wenatchee for this race.  A few weeks back I decided I needed a break and planned on skipping out on the Omnium.  A few days before my wife bought a brand new SUP board and saw that the weather in the Seattle area was going to suck starting on Saturday.  Wenatchee was looking good so since we still had the reservation we decided to head over.  Since I wasn't planning on racing I decided that I would only do the crit and just hang out and enjoy the weather the rest of the weekend.  My start time wasn't until 7:00pm on Saturday so that would give us plenty of time to hang out.  I'll spare you the boring details of our day and skip right to the race.

I knew the field was going to be small and normally I might opt to just wait and jump into the Pro/1/2 field but their start wasn't until almost 9:00pm and I wanted to be well into food and beer by then.  Minus a little wind the weather was perfect but as I warmed up I wasn't too excited.  I told myself that if the field was too small I'd just pack it in and head to the bar......Easier said than done.  Once you've kitted up, warmed up and rolled to the line it's hard to shut your game face down and just call it quits. so........

They had a pretty cool atmosphere going on around the course with loud speakers everywhere and several beer gardens.  We took off and right away the pace was really high.  After about three laps I took a look back and noticed there were already only five of us left.  I looked at who was still there and all of them were strong.  It was going to be a tough 40 minutes of racing.  Along with me were Martin(Este), Greg(Cycle-U/Apex), Warren(Fischer) and Jeff(Oly Ortho).  Jeff had already told me he was just glad to have made the break.  I knew Greg and Martin would want to try to take solo flyers off the front and Warren was going to be my stiffest competition if it came down to a field sprint. 

The primes were all for Omium points and since I wasn't doing all three races I told everyone I'd back off on those laps.  We got in a good rhythm and all took turns at the front.  On every lap someone always tried to attack on the short climb to see if they could get away.  I could tell when we were about half way through the race that no one was going to get dropped from this group. 

When the officials turned off the clock and started counting down laps we saw the rest of the guys up in front of us.  We were going to lap them before it was over.  I started to think about the finish and decided that with about three to go I was going to try to slot into 3rd or 4th wheel and camp out there.   Then, with one to go I made a plan to attack as hard as I could about halfway between turns two and three.  Hopefully I was the only one with that plan.  We started the final lap and right after we crested the climb and pushed through corner two I slowly started to shift up.  BAM!  I swung hard to the right and went as hard as I could.  Just before I reached corner three I took a quick look under my shoulder and saw I had a small gap.  I took a really aggressive turn through corner three and had a great line.  I shot out of corner four in my 23X11 and kicked as hard as I could.  I was all in and just prayed no one was on my wheel.  With about 50m to go I knew I had it but still went full boar to the line.  Thank God I did.  If the line was a few meters further Warren may have been able to pip me at the line.  

2012 Redmond Derby Days Criterium

The Derby Days crit is said to be longest running race in the US.  Now in it's 72nd year it is still a huge part of the annual Redmond Derby Days festival.  The fact is, I didn't even know there were other events that made up this festival.   I usually get there an hour or so before my race, warm up for a bit, race and then head directly to the beer garden.  Apparently there a ton of other things to do there.  One of these years I'll check them out.....Maybe.
You have probably read my rant about the weather in many of my write ups.  It usually stems from checking the weather several days before a race and seeing nothing but a big yellow sun.  It starts with a 0% chance of rain and then rises to  50% or higher by Friday.  Wait, am I ranting again??? I'm done (don't quote me on that.  I will probably check the forecast as soon as I'm done writing this) and will just assume every day will look like this.

We made our way towards Redmond around 2:30.  Sure enough it started to drizzle on the way over.  Should I wait to register? Everyone says this course is dangerous in the rain.  Shit, every course is more dangerous when it rains!  I'm racing!  It continued to drizzle as we warmed up on the Burke but it was not really making the road wet.  Fingers crossed.  It did stop by the time we made our way to the staging area.

I rode up to the line with Tom, Nikos, Mike, Matt and Kevin.  The prize money for this quite nice and we noticed that most local teams were well represented and individuals like Todd (Guinness), Aaron(Peterson) and Rory(Trek Redtruck) were also there to make some noise.  Before the race we all took a couple of laps around the course.  Hey, they actually did remove the turtles in the turns this year...Thanks Joe!  We didn't have a big time sprinter on our team lining up with us for this one so our goal was to constantly attack in hopes of getting rid of sprinters like Jim(KR) Rory(Trek Redtruck), Aaron(Peterson) and Gary(Audi).  Easier said then done but that was what we needed to do.  We going for 50 minutes which was nice.  We've had a few 30-35 minute crits which I think is too short.

The gun sounded and we started attacking.   We never let the field get bunched up for longer than a few seconds.  Once the break got caught we sent someone else.  If one of us didn't get away in a break we were at least going to make it a hard race. 

I'm not sure when it was but it did start to drizzle again.  There was a few minutes when everyone thought that the roads were finally going to get wet.  I think we had about two laps were everyone took it easy through the turns.  It quickly stopped and we were able to keep racing on dry roads....Thanks God!!

I think all of us managed to get in breaks that looked promising but none of them stuck.   It seemed that more breaks got off the front in this one than our previous crits.  Matt, Nikos and Mike had some good digs that stayed off for a while but nothing stuck.  I managed to get in one with Randy (KR) but he didn't work with me and we got brought back after a 1 1/2 laps.  Then,  with seven to go I got in another one with three other guys.  This one looked really promising.    We stayed kept driving and with three to go I was actually thinking we would pull this off.  With two to go I flicked my elbow but no one moved by...Really???  We have two to go and again found that I was not going to get anymore help.  I kept driving but right at the end of the lap we were caught.  I was just hoping that my effort didn't blow me off the back.  I was able to get back in right as Alec (KR) launched in support of Jim. I had to work my ass off to get back to the front and ran out of time when we reached the final corner.  Jim took the win!  Nikos managed to hold on for 7th and I hung on for 11th.  Not the result we wanted but that's how it goes in crit racing.

2012 Volunteer Park Criterium

The weather for Saturday was looking to be like something we haven't had since September of last year.  Throw in a local crit and you got a recipe for a perfect day!   For some reason I'd never raced Volunteer Park.  I think it is the only long standing race of any kind on the WSBA calendar that I hadn't lined up for at least once.  You would think that a race I could ride my bike to would always be on my list.  There's a first time for everything.

I had a general idea of the course layout but still wanted to pre-ride it before the race.  I had planned head over sometime during the week but that never happened.  No worries,  I'd have plenty of time prior to our start on race day to get in a couple of laps......Not!  At some point during the morning races things got off track and races were running about 15 to 20 minutes behind.   To try to get back on schedule racers were directed to stage as soon as the last person finished the prior race.   Well, I guess I'd be getting educated in a large pack at race speed!

I took a quick look at the competition as we were being ushered to the line.  Along with the usual suspects and a few strong Canadians I also noticed Kenny Williams over to my left.   I'd already line up with him a few times already this year but didn't really pay much attention.  Not the case today.  I was pretty sure he wasn't just going to take a back seat in this one!  It was also nice to see Jeff Dunn back in the mix after his crash down in Arizona.

We had good numbers so our plan was to launch one or two guys off the front right from the start.  Since I was clipping in for the first time here I decided to sit in for a few laps so I could get sea legs.  It's not your typical downtown style, crit.  It started out with a quick little S-turn quickly followed by a 3/4 trip through  a round-a-bout.  It then flowed downhill into a wide sweeping left hand curve.  There was one little "juke" before heading into a nice little climb.  Still climbing we turned right through the first quarter of another round-a-bout where it finally leveled out and took us down the long run out to the finish.   Throw in a few carpet covered obstacles and some slippery moss sections and you've finished the .8 mile loop.   During the first couple of laps when we started up the hill I thought my rear tire was going flat.  It turned out that I was actually sliding around a little bit on the moss.  Not good!  While I was still getting comfortable with the course the the rest of my teammates were already taking turns attacking off the front.  I think I started making my way to the front towards the end of lap 3.  I had made it to about 4th wheel when  I noticed we had two guys just off the front with a small group.   As soon as they were brought back I made my first move.  As soon as we were brought back John jumped.  Things seemed to be going  well.  We seemed to starting or covering every attack. (except when Kenny went  solo for a while)  It was keeping the pace high and the pack was constantly strung out single file. 

Unfortunately we did have some bad luck.  Mark went to attack on one of the early laps and had his rear wheel slide out.  Not sure how he kept from hitting the deck.  The near miss coupled with the fact that he had a bad crash here before made him decide to shut it down.  Nikos wasn't so lucky.  He was in a group of six that got away and he lost his front wheel in the moss and went down.  I think Gary Brown and Robert Valez went down as well.  John had been riding super strong up front for most of the race.  At some point his saddle loosened up enough to cause it to almost fall off.  He was able to finish but really couldn't do much after that.

There was not an easy lap during this race.  You could catch your breath little during the downhill section but the climb up put the burn back into the legs . With three to go no one was off the front and everyone started trying to put themselves where they wanted to be for the finish. I pushed hard on the climb to get myself up near the front.  The pace was really picking up and we were all strung out on the downhill section.  It made it harder for other guys to make up ground and I was able to hold my same position going into the bell lap.  Anthony Dixon (Audi) started on the front and was driving the pace.  Martin (Farestart) was right on his wheel.  Kenny Williams (Slalom) was sitting third followed by Greg (Farestart), Erik (Olympia Ortho) and then me.  I was in good position to try to lead out teammates but when I looked back I looked back none were near my wheel. Just as I turned back around I saw Martin look back.  He must have noticed that Greg and Ryan were right there so he made the first hard move.  We were flying into the uphill section.  As we rounded the corner we were all basically in the same position.  Kenny jumped right out of the turn and that   was all it took.  No one was going to catch him.   I put my head down and drove as hard as I could.  I was able to cross the line in 5th and was super stoked!

great video of our race by Phil Machino, forzavelo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzOgokKXJKE

all images by Denise Phillips