State Crit Champs

My race report for the Ripon WCA State Crit Champs.

I don’t often write race reports, because they usually go something like this: sat in the back at the tail gunner position spending the first half of the race going around guys who were blowing up and getting dropped. Started my sprint dead last in 40 something position and finished 13th or 22nd or some other completely nondescript position.

Fortunately this race was different. But really only because it was a particularly hard race and there were fewer guys left in the end.

The course was an interesting 4 corner course with an interesting jog/chicane in the middle of the section between turn 1 and 2. There were also 4 little hills of varying degrees of steepness and length in the middle of each straight away. The one on the start finish straight being barely noticeable. The video of the course doesn’t quite do those hills or corners justice



The toughest being the steep rise coming out of corner 2. The corner had 2 bright orange painted circles identifying rough pavement. It took me awhile to figure out this corner, but once I did I think it made all the difference.

The sharp left turn happened after a slight downhill section, so you carried a lot of speed into the 2nd corner. Obviously with the steep rise out of the corner the more speed you could maintain the better. I soon found that if you went outside (to the right) of the two orange spots you would be on the right half of the road, which given the slight hump in the middle meant you were now on the off camber part, making aggressive turning more sketchy, and preventing you from pedaling. However if you could pull the corner tight and stay on the left half of the road by kicking a field goal between the two orange spots, you could comfortably carry more speed into the corner and you could pedal immediately without risking scraping a pedal.

The race started fast and furious, and every time I looked up I thought I saw the happy mutant kit of Bob Marhefke on the front. After spending a lot of time going around guys getting popped at the back, things settled down a bit after about 15 minutes into the race. Although there was the more than occasional annoyance of a lapped rider jumping back into the intentional gapped I left before a corner, only for them to get popped two corners later. Argh. There was still a lot of attacking at the front, but nothing was sticking until about 15 minutes left in the race, a Wheaton Franciscan rider got off the front. I thought it would come back, but he pretty quickly got about 20 seconds on the field, and more importantly he rode out of sight. With his teammate (Chris Newlin of Viroqua) managing the action at the front, it looked liked I missed the train. Here is where the hard decision needs to be made, do I go to the front and kill myself trying to chase across, or do I hope someone else does the work. I almost always do the latter, and I decided to do the same here even as another rider from LAPT got away. Had it not been so windy, and had it not been so hot, maybe I could have done something and recovered, but I knew my best chances were in a field sprint, if only because the field was now down to about 20 guys from our original 40 or so. And of those 20 about half of them were visibly hurting. I also knew from the last few times through corner 2 I could get to the front, probably easier from the back then if I were in the middle of the pack, since I could pick my own line.

With 4 laps to go and 2 guys still away, bob got to the front and nailed it, despite him not realizing it, his effort put paid to the LAPT guys attempt, though the Wheaton guy would stay clear to the finish. Bob looked like he was sitting up, but with two to go he came up and offered me his wheel. Maybe I should have taken it, but I decided to stick with my original plan and just go hard from corner 2. I did and passed a lot of guys sitting up. At this point it was really hard to figure out the state of play as there were a lot of lapped riders on the course, and some of the yahoos were even sprinting. From what I could figure there were still about 6 or 7 guys in front of me coming out of corner 3. I saw two LAPT guys hook up and I got up to their wheel. Now it looked as though I was in 5th wheel (not counting the solo guy up the road). Going into the final corner I pulled it a little tighter than the LAPT guys, but as I made it through the corner I heard the awful sound of wheels sliding out. I think they went into the corner a little hot, but they held it upright. Unfortunately it was just enough for me to hesitate and probably grab a little brake. I restarted my sprint and passed them, but could not quite catch Chris Newlin (who ended up second) and a Velo Tracedero guy in front of me. Thus I was third in the sprint and 4th overall in the race, but as luck would have it I was the first one across the line born between Jan 1 1969 and Jan 1 1973, therefore making me the WCA 35-39 Cat 3/4 state champion. So I will proudly be wearing the Organic Valley colors at the November banquet when I accept the Sate Champions Jersey for my category.

I do feel a bit silly about it, since I did not win the race outright, but wearing the gold medal around the house gave my family a lot of laughs on father’s day. And you know I’m going to wear the jersey every Tuesday night ride next year.