Reports by:

• Ziggy
• Biker Bob

Category: 3
Result: Mid-pack

I didn't really want to go to this race as it kinda breaks my rule of not driving in one direction for much more than the time I will be racing. I convinced myself to go because of two reasons: 1. I wanted to see if I could repeat my performance of Saturday, and 2. my co-worker had let me go home early the night before so I could rest up for the day's race. After 90 minutes of driving, I arrived at the course and managed a parking spot across the street from Bob. With my fantastic new warm-up routine out of the way, I went for a pee (slash) and headed to the start.

The race was 40 minutes with 9 primes, so it was almost guaranteed to be fast. I started out at the front and comfortably held this spot for most of the race. Holding my front spot meant a bit of hard work, but I didn't mind as I like the racing and competition of being up front. One or two attacks were made for every prime, and I followed about 75% of them, initiating the chase on maybe two or three of them.

I find that the group mentality of expecting someone else to do the work hasn't gone away, and perhaps has even gotten worse in the 3's. I got the opportunity to participate in a fast paced and very cooperative chase which involved myself and one other rider in which we brought back a duo that had the lenght of the long side of the course on the field in under one lap. Towards the end of the race, the breaks were getting longer and chases fewer.

The last break/chase is one I should have sat out of, but it looked as if it was going to stay away once we caught the group. The chase was started by Adam Switters, actually he did all the chasing as it was all I could do just to hang on his wheel. As soon as we reached the break, all the riders scattered and we were caught fairly quickly by the bunch. This brought us into one to go and I went into finishing mode, staying active and always looking for a new wheel.

I had what looked to be a good spot until with two turns to go, a rider came across my front wheel and gave it a bit of a rub. This sent me a bit off course and I played bumper bikes for what seemed to be an eternity, but was really only a second or so. This lost me about five or six positions and I was now looking at a crappy finish. I was given one opportunity to move up, but I started to think and doubt whether the position would actually work and as soon as I did this, the opportunity closed up and we were into the final turn. My head wasn't in the game at this point and I couldn't open up my legs for a good sprint and was rolled for tenth spot and ended up with 11th. The guy that rubbed my wheel ended up getting second in the sprint.

Bob represented the team well with a solid xxx place. I'll let him tell the story behind that one!

In the end, it was a bit of bad luck with the wheel rub, and good fortune in that I was able to keep the bike upright throughout the little altercation. I'm happy that I was able to keep up with some of the faster guys in this category. I'm also amazed at how crazy some of the riders get on the run into the finish. I learned a couple of things today about bunch finishes and when to work and when to sit in. Aside from Cat's Hill, this crit was probably one of the hardest crits I have ever ridden.

One more note: our race tires are some bad ass tires! Turn one of the crit had a little bit of uneven asphalt at the apex of the turn, and on several occasions my rear wheel stepped out a little but never fully lost grip. Bob mentioned how hard I was taking some of the turns and I can say that aside from turn one, I never felt that the tires were at their limit. I think the tight geometry of a 48cm bike also allows me to take things a bit sharper than your average big bike.

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Category: 3
Result: 3rd

Biker Bob's Race Report, Ziggy is definately a solid 3. He rode a great agressive race and it was nice seeing our colors at the front. Ziggy was right behind me with 3 turns to go behind a good lead out train from some team. His report explains what happened in the next corner. Well the lead out was the one to be on and I pulled off 3rd place again. I needed it after getting boxed in on sat.

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