This year I won my second race ever, The Ballard Crit Cat 3's!!
After upgrading last year, being hit by a car in December, and getting dropped in my first races this year, it was an extremely rough start to the season.
But with determination and training the legs came back around, and I could tell that fitness was close to where it was before.
The Race
Rob & I rode down from Capitol Hill, taking our time and not wanting to waste an ounce of effort. We got to Ballard with tons of time to spare, and watched some of the earlier races and got ready for ours. Changed into my skinsuit in an alley, talked with the team, warmed up, and tried not to let the nerves take over. It is the Ballard Crit after all..
We rolled around on side streets for 10 minutes as a warm-up, pretty weak - but I felt nice and loose and ready to race! After some decent results at Seward Park lately I figured I could do something useful in this race, and had the team riding for me so I was really hoping to make their work worth it.
We (Recycled Cycles/Raleigh Racing) had five guys in the cat 3 race: me, Spoonie, Steve, Jeff, and Nick. So with four of them putting in work so that I could rest in the pack, it was great fun watching Steven win primes, Spoonie go off the front and attack for a few laps, Steve attacking at will, etc. All of that was in hopes that our competitors would then have to chase down those attacks and primes. Make them work that much harder. (and if the attacks stuck, then it was still a win for the team)
In the cat 3's the main difference is that teams try to work together, and actually get stuff done more often. Trying to organize a team in a crit is tough, but with team mates ready to sacrifice their race for yours, it does work out.
Spoonie & Steve on the front, stringing it out: (that means we're going fast)
With about 3 or 4 laps to go, I got on the front and was concerned that we'd lost control of the race; if we ever had control is of course debatable, but now was the time that it really mattered. I'd been resting up the whole race, so I had a little to spare even though I was saving most of it for the end.
Two to go, and I'm still on the front, trying to keep the pace up - but not going fast enough. Don't want anyone to come around, unless it was a team mate..
Luckily a team mate came to the rescue - Spoonie got on the front and strung it out, with me sitting 5th wheel ready to pounce! Ideally I would have been right on his wheel, but that might have been too predictable in the end.
What you can't see in any of the photos or video of the race is how I won it - we held the formation above on the back straight, which had a tailwind leading into the 3rd corner. And since it was a tailwind my plan all along was to attack in this section on the last lap, knowing that the strong tailwind would make it so that nobody had much of a draft, and that we'd all have to work the same. (meaning if someone is behind you, they aren't getting much draft from you)
As we straightened out from corner two, I was in 5th wheel and happy that Spoonie was keeping the pace up - must've been around 30 mph at least, though I didn't use any data during this race so I have no idea!
I got the feeling everyone was just waiting for the exit of corner four to start the sprint, but I decided to start it a bit earlier. I saw an opening, had speed on those in front of me, and jumped as hard as I could. It was a race-winning sprint and I put everything into it. I had to.
The tricky part is that I had to hold everyone off out of corner 4 to the line.. slightly uphill and in to a slight headwind.
Leading the pack out of corner 4 on the last lap - I felt like I had a bigger gap than what appears here, but it was just enough.
A team mate on the sidelines got a great shot of me coming out of turn 4, gunning for the line:
Eventually the guys on my wheel start to fan out to come around.. my legs are on fire.. want to give up but it's not time just yet..
But they can't come around!!
[photos from wheelsinfocus.com]
Yup. I did it again! I could only half believe it after it happened, and all I could do was let out a "FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YEAH!!!!!"
The Ballard Twilight Crit has been on my calendar since last year, as an "A" race. That meant my whole training plan (when I had one anyway) was centered around this race. It's the atmosphere there that made it great to race there, and probably makes it an "A" race on most people's calendars too.
Getting 13th in the 4/5's last year, after about a month of racing, I figured I could at least do better this time around as a Cat 4, after about a year of racing.
And going into this one I was the overall leader in the Cascadia Crit series 4/5's, even though I hadn't actually won any of the races (placings were 4th, 5th, 3rd - being consistent was paying off, along with the fact that the top guy dropped out after Seward).
In fact I hadn't won any races up to this point - and isn't that why one gets into racing, to win? Getting fitter & faster is fun too, but winning is the ultimate goal.
Getting Ready
Kira & I drove over to Ballard and parked close to the course, behind a building where others were parked (we figured it was safe to park there, but nope we got a ticket after all!) I didn't have to worry about getting into the race like at Seward, I was pre-registered and just had to sign in. Plenty of time.
Warmed up under our team tent, a Cat 3 let me use his trainer for a few minutes, sweet. And in fact it was for only a few minutes; after getting signed in, waiting in the porta-potty line, etc, there were only about 20 minutes until our race time!
Riding the trainer was so much better than my warmup for Ballard last year: rolling around the streets east of the course, just riding back and forth on the .5 mile stretch before Fred Meyer. I don't ever use the trainer we have at home, since I like riding outside, but for something like this it was a great way to get the heart rate up and get sweaty. I've always heard you should be a little sweaty when you get to the line, and even though the warm-up was only about 10 minutes long it was enough.
Got to take one or two practice laps of the course, and it was familiar from last year, though there was cardboard held down by duct tape over some 2x4" cracks in the pavement in corner one, and a set of hay bails blocking the apex of turn two, which was a little different.
The Race
One of the great things about being on the overall podium in the Cascadia Crit series is the "call ups" you get to do before the race. Once everyone is lined up they call up the top five people in reverse order, so I got to go last. It gives you some recognition and also gives you a good starting spot.
The whole pack of 75 lined up and ready to go - but only one can come out on top:
After some announcements from the official we were sent off, and I was excited! I used to almost dread the start whistles of these big crits, now I can't wait for them. Another chance for points, another chance for a win. Another chance for fun, and to gain more experience racing.
Got lined up in the first 10 or so riders in the first turn, and loved how much more smooth this race is from the front of the pack than from the back, where I raced it last year. Last year I felt like I really had to dig to maintain contact coming out of turn two, but this year we were coasting into a nice fast backstretch with a tailwind, and not having to jam it at all.
It felt a lot easier than last year overall, though the average speed came out to about the same. Guess I've just gotten stronger. Actually I know I've gotten stronger, I can see it in the training numbers and more importantly results. I was just surprised how different this race felt this year.
Before the race the announcer explained premes to the crowd, and said that "racers can used them to gauge the sprint and get a feel for it" or something along those lines, something I'd never thought of. I always thought of premes as a waste of energy or for those who were super strong, if they could win a preme and then take the race too. So I usually ignored them.
But this time when a points preme came up, I was on the front and went for it. Just kept the pace high and led the pack out (from what I remember). It seemed easy, was nobody else going for it or what I thought? Only 5 points to add to the ~800 I already had in the omnium, but for me it was more about figuring out that sprint. And winning that preme probably gave me the courage/confidence to really go for the final sprint (something I never thought I'd win).
Other premes came and went and I just made sure not to drift too far back, stayed in the top 20 pretty much the whole time. Some people like to ride the race from the back, and "tailgun" it, but it seems to me that just sets you up to have to deal with gaps, crashes, and the accordion effect. F that.
The Crash
About half way through the race we come into the finish straight and we're being waved around a First Rate Mortgage racer lying on the ground in the middle of the course near the finish line. Doesn't look good.
Next lap we come through and there are more people waving at us, and at first we're getting ready to go around the injured rider again but soon realized they wanted us stop completely. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to stop a crit, but it was done pretty smoothly. The officials had the chasing pack stay about 20 feet behind our lead pack, as the field had split into two groups at this point.
They had an ambulance come and take the guy away. Heard later he was knocked out at first, probably broke his collarbone and might have separated his shoulder as well. Along with a concussion, as his helmet was supposedly smashed as well. On the one hand that's a scary image, but I guess that's what helmets are for..
I heard about three different versions of how/why he crashed, ranging from he was along and went down out of nowhere, to the version where a lapped rider took him out on accident. Either way it didn't look good but he was conscious and gave a thumbs-up on the way out.
Hope he's doing alright - anyone have updates on his condition?
Race Restart
The officials set 15 minutes on the clock, and restarted us. I looked around and the front line was almost the same as when we started, lots of points leaders: Dave Z., Chad, Adam, Rob, and me.
After a little while they switched from time to 8 laps to go, and the countdown began. A Lenovo guy went off the front, but couldn't get much distance. Pretty hard to go off the front in a flat crit like that, but he lasted a lap or two I think.
With about three laps to go the pack was back together and my team mate Kyle came around the front and started to light it up. I could see what was happening (he was leading me out for the win!) immediately, so I jumped on his wheel. This was the time that would decide the winner, I figured.
One guy in an orange or red kit was between Kyle & I, but on the backstretch he dropped out, couldn't hold the pace. I could barely hold the pace myself but yelled "GO!!!" at Kyle, making sure he kept the gas on. We were doing close to 30 mph, or maybe more, and it was all I could do to hang on. I could only hope our high speeds were stringing out the pack, and setting everything up for a win.
Looking at the photos, the pack sure was strung out! Perfect.
This effort hurt, a lot, but I knew that there were only minutes left in the race. Time to empty the tank.
One lap to go, and it's still Kyle & I on the front, and he's turning the screws as they say. In the back of my head I'm just hoping we can hang on to this, and see what happens coming out of the last corner.
Sure enough we come into the final turn 1st & 2nd, and as we get into the finish straightaway I'm hoping people don't start swarming around us. Wasn't sure how much of a gap we had on the field, if any, but I know my sprint isn't award-winning so it was going to take a little gap to get me to the line.
Switched all the way to 53x12, and ground out the sprint up the slight uphill towards the line. Felt hugely over-geared and as if I was doing 60 rpms, but just held the gas as much as I could. Nobody was coming around yet!
I could hear the announcer calling the sprint and my name, and it certainly helped as motivation. Since Kyle is so fast I was almost afraid I wasn't going to be able to come around him, but slowly gained ground on him and finished with space between us, his hands in the air in celebration of our team's win.
Thanks a billion, Kyle! Couldn't have done it without your leadout. Team work in the 4/5's, who would have thought?
After crossing the line I closed me eyes and thought "HolyshitIcan'tbelieveIjustwonBallard!!!!!", then sat up and gave my victory salute: arms down but slightly out to the side, as if I were ascending into the sky at that very moment. I like to think of it as my "Cat 3 birth" in fact, as it give me the points I need to upgrade to the 3's!
After the race we did a cool-down lap I got to give a little interview over loudspeaker, that was pretty surreal.
If all this description of the race isn't enough for you, someone from the Bikesale.com team made a great video of the 4/5's race! (and a bunch of the other races too)
Won a Thompson seatpost & stem, along with some more free socks (I'm starting to get a collection of these). And of course bragging rights for the next year..
The other thing I got from the race was seven upgrade points, giving me 26 total! Since you only need 20 points to get to the Cat 3's I can upgrade now, something I thought would take years. (Some never get out of the 4/5's at all) I became a Cat 4 back in March, so it's taken about three months, I can't believe it. I think the whole "build/base/peak/race" training plan has worked out well! (7-12 hours per week these days, for the record, as I've been asked a lot about this lately)
Since I want to finish out the Cascadia Crit series as the 4/5's points leader by doing the Tacoma Twilight Crit next weekend, I'm going to be a "sandbagger" for that one race and stay a 4 for now. $125 goes to the overall winner in our category and I want that person to be me!
A message to Rob, Ian, Chad, Dave Z, Tim, Kyle, Jed, Adam, and everyone else I know in the 4's: get your asses up the 3's soon! I'm gonna need the company. But I'm looking forward to longer races that start later in the day, and "Cat 3" certainly has a nice ring to it..
From what I keep hearing it's not that much faster in the 3's, it's just that the surges are faster and the fields are deeper, and of course the races are longer (crits are one hour, road races are 60-90 miles). The worst it can do is make me faster.. also looking forward to racing with Jordan R., Mark, and Jordan L. that I've raced with previously. See you guys soon!
Stats
Ballard Crit 2010 (minus stoppage time) Duration: 31:10 (38:18) Work: 463 kJ TSS: 51 (intensity factor 0.991) Norm Power: 287w VI: 1.16 Distance: 13.071 mi Elevation Gain: 855 ft Min Max Avg Power: 0 1004 247 watts Heart Rate: 121 198 182 bpm Cadence: 16 121 81 rpm Speed: 0 37? 25.1 mph (a tad faster than last year I think) Crank Torque: 0 1695 243 lb-in
Thanks to all the volunteers & the Second Ascent team/shop for putting on this awesome race, and all my friends (Liz/Dennis, John, Rachel) that came out to race or watch! And of course to Kira for coming out and cheering me on. I'm so glad you were all there to see it.
Saturday was the Ballard Criterium - an annual 1-kilometer race over some crappy roads in Old Ballard. A great spot to race at, with the bars and restaurants lining the street and people cheering you on along most of the route.
The roads are pretty bumpy and generally interesting to race on, what with nice ~30-mm gaps in the road on the backstretch, the man-hole cover surrounded by bricks that somehow rises up 6" from the road, some nice pot holes.. basically the works in terms of road wreckage.
I use to go watch this race since about 2004, and always dreamed of trying it out. Well, I tried it out finally! After having done decently at Seward Park the last few weeks, I figured I was as ready for this race as I'll ever be.
Photos& Story
The rear of the 4/5 (beginner's) pack, with the announcer's/judge's booth in the background. Having the announcer at the race was kind of cool, saying who was up front pulling (hard to tell from 50 people back) and little tidbits like that. Plus a big clock to remind you how much suffering you have left.
The head race official inspecting the Men's 4/5 field before the 4:00 PM race. I'm somewhere in there, nervous as hell. First crit! I think my legs were literally shaking before the race. Good way to get the HR up though, to hit the ground running.
And they're off! You can see the 79-person field stretched out by the high pace for the first 10 minutes or so. The pace wasn't too bad, as long as you weren't having to close a gap on someone in front of you.
The pack ended up shrinking quite a bit before the race was over. Since there was always someone hammering on the front, the pack barely got into a real thick group formation except for a few seconds on the back stretch each lap. That's me in the SiR jersey, probably struggling to catch up after having to slow down for a crash (or close-call) somewhere along one of the corners or the back stretch. Luckily my wool outfit, steel frame, Open Pro rims, and mid-level Campy components didn't hold me back. My heart/lungs do that enough. Oh man was I hurting at points!
On the first few laps the pace was set really high to "shred the phreds" as they say. From the looks of this I'd say that's exactly what was happening at the back. I was somewhere in the middle, or at least trying to be. It was too much work to move up, and would end up being too much work if I moved back. The pace was pretty snappy for sure, but the hardest part is protecting your front wheel in the turns. I had some close calls, but stayed upright somehow.
More of the huge line of riders. It was probably strung out due to one of the big crashes.
I'm in there somewhere:
There we go again - a great shot:
And off we go for another lap - that first turn we were approaching was really rough, with some dirt & rocks in the road, big cracks, and some weird divots that you had to know about and prepare for. If you didn't know about them, you'd learn pretty quick.
Before too long, a few big crashes had taken out much of the peloton. In the end, only 29 people finished the race! (Out of 78 starters)
Trying to hang on when the pace got higher for a prime lap - after the first half of the race I finally had a chance to catch my breath a little, and while I wouldn't call it relaxing, I wasn't dying any more either.
The ever-shrinking pack: (or was this a straggling group?)
Then before I knew it it was time for the finish.. 35 minutes of racing done, and on the last lap the guy in white on the left below tried to go early, but a bunch of us jumped on his wheel. (I think, honestly it's mostly a blur)
The last lap was definitely faster than most of the others, and I worked really hard to stay up front, or close to it. I think there was a crash on this lap, or the one before it, and somehow that put me up towards the front of the pack.
I held on to the leaders through the last turn, and was happy to see the final stretch for the final time. 35 minutes is a long time at about 180 bpm.
I was too tired to put much into the sprint, so I just hammered it out from the seat - it was enough for 13th place! Pretty damn happy with that result.
Sailing in for 13th. Not bad for my first crit eh?
Huge thanks to Kira for taking all these great photos!
Cat 3 Men's Photo set: link Cat 3/4 Women's Photo set: link Cat 4/5 Men's photo set: link
Course Notes
Here's a shot Kira took of the 2nd turn, coming on to the back stretch. The little section of asphalt that the red riders are on was interesting, there was a gap/raised section that curved out in your line, and while it gave you something to shoot for when coming through at 50-60 km/h, it could also cause you to crash pretty easily. (from the Cat 3 Men's race)
The back stretch. It felt like the wind was coming from the east, which meant this section was a headwind. Staying in the pack was crucial here unless you felt like wasting a bunch of energy. My tactic on this turn was to brake as little as possible going through it, if at all, which is a challenge in the pack. If you slow down going into it, you're forced to sprint out of the turn, using a lot of energy. If you hold speed through the turn you still have to speed up a little to hang on, but not nearly as much. I rarely had to get out of the saddle here, while many seemed to be sprinting for their lives each lap here. (This pic is the 3's again)
The Crashes, Oh The Crashes
One thing you always hear about crits was that crashes were inevitable. Sure enough, our race had four crashes in it! I had a glimpse of three of them, though they're quickly becoming a blur in the mix of images from the race now. I heard some of the other races had crashes too, but it seemed like there were a lot of nervous people in the 4/5 field, which usually translates to sketchiness.
Crash 1 - On the straight back stretch, I was near the middle of the pack which was bunched up. Suddenly I heard the scratching/sliding sound of a bike going down, and saw one helmet smack in the middle of the riders ahead of me disappear. Within a split second just about all of the riders surrounding the fallen rider were also going down, either out of a reaction or getting hit by the guy going down. The classic chain-reaction effect.
This caused what seemed like at least 20 or so riders to go down. I had to swerve way to the left around the fallen/falling riders, and I distinctly remember one rider in white/red rolling out to the left as I went around - I barely cleared him. Whoa. And this was probably just 10 minutes into the race..
Crash 2 - I think this one was on turn three, coming back into the main stretch. It was behind me so I didn't see it, but someone's wheel probably just slid out. All I heard was that familiar sound of crashing bicycles & yelling.
Crash 3 - This one seemed pretty spectacular, though I didn't get to see all of it. Coming into the last turn, a rider on the inside got squeezed further inside, forcing him basically on to the sidewalk. I thought that would be enough to send them down, but they rode up the wheelchair ramp and seemed to be OK. Then when they came back on to the road (now slightly behind me, luckily), I just hear yelling and more of "that sound." This time much of the crowd could see the carnage, and let out a collective "!!!!!!"
Crash 4 - This was probably the worst one, or maybe it just seems that way since I had a decent view of it. Near the end of the race, a rider went down on the first turn. Either touched a wheel or hit one of the many obstacles in the road. All of a sudden there's a guy sliding on his backwards on his chest, and just looking up with open eyes in a state of shock. And there was at least another rider just about on top of this poor guy, about to crash on top of him or over him. Yikes.
I hope nobody got too messed up from all the carnage - didnt hear any ambulances so hopefully not. I got really lucky not to get sucked up into any of these.. though I know my day is coming eventually.
Data
You can see the variability in the power data here (yellow line) - basically a lot of resting followed by a lot of jamming on the pedals. I could probably do some more work around saving energy for the final sprint, since I didn't have much left at the end.
The last few laps, including the "sprint" finish:
Ballard Crit 2009: Duration: 34:17 (missed a few secs of the race) Work: 500 kJ TSS: 50.4 (intensity factor 0.939) Norm Power: 268 VI: 1.1 Pw:HR: 9.5% Pa:HR: -0.22% Distance: 23.048 km Elevation Gain: 251 m Min Max Avg Power: 0 966 243 watts Heart Rate: 131 190 179 bpm Cadence: 20 142 88 rpm Speed: 6.5 57.9 40.1 kph Crank Torque: 0 202.4 24.8 N-m
40.1 km/h - definitely faster than I usually ride! Though surprisingly not that much faster than the ~38 km/h Seward Park 4/5 races. It definitely felt like a faster ride, but on paper I suppose it wasn't all that much faster. It was definitely fun though.
Huge thanks to Chris for coming out and watching me suffer for a while, and cheering me on! We'll get to suffer together soon enough, as the SiR 600km is coming up next weekend! I'm excited to do another big ride, I haven't really done much distance since the 400km a few weeks ago.
Another annual Seattle race, this one is in the U-district. I went down at about 10:30 this morning to see Rachael kick ass (again) in the cat 4 Women's race.
Also got some video this time!
Cat 4 Women:
Couple of notes from the race: Local cycling god (pro?) Kenny Williams was riding with the Cat 4 women's peloton, apparently coaching them in real-time! At first I was all, "who's that woman riding outside the peloton?" But upon a closer look you could see that it was Kenny, pedaling with a smile plastered on his face.
Also interesting to see some "discussions" in the breakaway about who was doing the most work - I heard a Wine's Of Washington rider yell to a Group Health rider (The break was two GH rides and the one Wines rider), "You can't just take the fucking downhill every time!" (Meaning, we've got to share the workload, and you're only taking the easy pulls)
But in the end, Group Health's strategy paid off, and they took the win. Nice work!
I've got a vid of the finish as well, need to get that up here soon..
