After getting my first taste of a real cycling road race a few weeks ago at the Wake Forest University Cycling ACC Road Race, I've really had the urge to try out another road race to redeem myself from what I feel was a sub-par performance on my part. I've had a little more free time in my schedule this week as I am finishing out the last week of my 3rd year of medical school on a somewhat easier rotation (Radiology), so I was perusing a few of the LBS websites last night to see what kind of local road racing I could find. I didn't find a whole lot in terms of road racing, but I realized that there is a great criterium series held right here in Winston-Salem on the Dixie Classic Fairgrounds. Granted, I ride my road bike a heck of a lot, but to be completely honest, I am very far removed from the typical "roadie", so I hardly even knew what a criterium was. I did a little bit of searching on the internet and quickly convinced myself that this race sounded like a good idea. It sounded fast, intense, and full of white-knuckled turns; everything that my current ironman training schedule is NOT preparing me for! I knew it would be a great way to get some really hard lactate threshold and VO2 max work in though, as well as expose me to more of the world of cycling. So I figured, what the heck, and decided to register.
I rode out to the fairgrounds after getting off work to get an easy 5 mi warmup in. The temperature was a hot 83 degrees with a strong wind from the southwest. I picked up my number at the registration table and continued my warmup out on the race course. Overall, it seemed like a really great course. It was completely contained within the fairgrounds, so obviously closed to traffic. The loop was a 0.6 mi oval with 2 major turns at either end and a large s-bend along one of the straights. After riding a dozen or so laps, I felt like a had a good feel for the lines I needed to follow through the turns.
As I made my way to the starting line, I thought about what my strategy for this race should be. I knew that I didn't want to spend time hanging out in an easy peleton, like I did in the WFU Cycling ACC Road Race, so I figured I would control the pace on this 30 min criterium and try my best to take the snap out of the sprinter's legs so I would be in a position to podium at the finish. When the gun went off, I dropped the hammer. I sprinted to the first turn and never looked back. For the first 15 mins of the race I rode over 350 W and lapped all but 4 racers in the field of about 20. I then dialed it down to about 320 W and continued to push. After a few more laps, I realized that the group of 4 riders who I hadn't lapped were working together to slowly reel me in. With over 10 mins to go in the race and a very strong wind along the back stretch of the loop, I knew that they would be able to pull me in if they worked together, so I eased off the gas and decided that I would hang back and recover for a couple of minutes. When the 4 riders overtook me, I realized that we were settling into a nice easy pace, which was not at all beneficial to me. I felt like the only way I had a shot at winning this thing was to make sure that everybody was completely drained by the finish so I wouldn't get out-sprinted. I knew I still had the legs to hammer out the rest of the race at approximately 320-ish W, but I decided to hang back for a few minutes and see if anybody would make a surge. Nobody did. So, I took the lead again just as the officials announced 10 laps to go in the race. I surged hard for a lap and dropped 2 guys off the back of the group for good. Now it was just the 3 of us. I let up for a moment to see if one of the other guys would pull a few laps, but nobody seemed willing to go. I didn't want to let the other 2 guys who I had dropped catch back up, so I surged again. I held the lead for the rest of the race and tried as hard as I could to drop the last 2 guys, but they were sucking my wheel too efficiently. I had enough juice left to surge the last lap at over 400 W, but as I had feared, I got out-sprinted in the last straight by just a couple of wheel lengths and crossed the line in 3rd place.
Overall, I'm very happy with my first crit. I definitely felt like I used my strengths more in this race than I had in the WFU Cycling ACC Road Race, but I think I may have swung the strategic pendulum just a little too far in the opposite direction this time. Instead of sitting back in the peleton like I did in the road race, I pulled for 95% of the entire crit. This strategy did give me an excellent workout, but it left me with much less of a reserve for a super strong finish. I think that if I can find a happy medium somewhere between the two strategies, where I can control a fast pace to weaken the sprinters but still find good opportunities to get out of the wind, I will really find my "sweet spot".
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