Category: 3/4
Result: Mid-pack

I'm pleased to report that FFBC had a huge showing at this weekend's crit. Huge, referring of course to the size of my ego going into this thing. The race was a 40 minute 3/4 combo with a field limit of 100. One would think that a 3/4 combo race would fill up pretty quickly, but this was not the case today. I think we had little more than 70 riders total.

There was a slight headwind on the ever so slightly inclined finishing straight. The race basically went like this: the 3's rode the legs off the 4's and I didn't win. I was almost certain that a break would form as Solano and McSlow(Guire) had a fairly decent showing. Nothing went away despite a fairly large number of primes. I wound the motor up for the first prime of the race and quickly discovered that I didn't have the top speed nor the sprint to contest it.

I spent the rest of the race jockeying for position amongst the top 15 riders and in the final two laps was in a really good spot. Fortunately the pack kept the pace really high for the finishing laps and all the turns were buttery smooth.

Last lap, I was pretty much at my limit just holding onto a wheel in the top ten. Normally this isn't a problem as I can usually come up with some additional speed in the sprint. Today, it was a problem. As we rounded the final corner and the bunch began to sprint, I pretty much went backwards no matter how hard I pounded the pedals. Ouch! That was the biggest piece of humble pie I've been served in a while. I'm not so sure I like not having any top end. I think I managed to finish within the top 20.

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