A couple of weeks ago, Mock Orange Bikes hosted the 33rd annual Hanes Park Classic Criterium series. I hadn't really planned to race, but I was getting a little burned out mentally from the monotony of training for Rev3 Cedar Point, so I decided to substitute my normal weekend long ride for an "easy" 30 minute criterium. I got an ample warm up in on Sunday morning of a bit over an hour and then rode over to Hanes Park in the West End Village of Winston-Salem and registered for the Cat 4/5 race.
As I wheeled up to the starting line, I knew in my mind that there was probably nobody in this race who had logged as many hours as me on the bike over the past 3 months. I knew I was ready to drop the hammer in this race. I admittedly have essentially no experience in criteriums, but I was hoping that I could use my better-than-normal conditioning to "muscle" out a podium spot. The gun went off and I took a good position in the top 10. I rode a couple of laps of the 2 mile course in this position to get a feel for the turns (and also to stay out of all of the congestion in the back of the peleton). Over the next few laps, I took plenty of turns pulling at the front and comfortably started to ramp up the pace. Riders were slowly beginning to shed off of the back and I could feel things starting to thin out up front. I sat back a couple more laps and then took another turn at the front. I pulled hard to thin out the remaining riders. My legs felt incredible and I knew I was going to have a lot of "matches" left to burn at the end of this race. I mentally planned to make my break with 2 laps to go in order to avoid any chance of a sprint finish. I eased off the gas a bit as we rounded the last few corners until we hit the line for 2 laps to go. As we came around the last curve before we crossed the line, I heard somebody coming up hard on the outside. The guy was riding erratically and made a sharp cut in front of me as we came out of the curve. I knew in an instant that my race was over. As he cut me off, my front wheel got completely mangled in his rear skewer. I heard the shearing of spokes and felt my front wheel start to lock up. I remember thinking, "man, this is really gonna hurt", as I expected this to end in me hitting the deck HARD. Thankfully, I managed to stay up, but unfortunately, my race was over.
Despite the fact that this race was my first DNF in any sort of race ever, I'm glad that I raced in this crit. It reaffirmed for me how important smart riding technique is in criteriums. You certainly need a strong "engine", but strategy and technique is so much more important in criterium racing than any other style of racing I have done. Criteriums really give me an adrenaline rush that is different from what I experience in triathlons or running races. I think that I see a few more crits in my future...
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