Harrisonburg Downtown Crit

April 28, 2007

This course, being in downtown Harrisonburg, was important to me. Harrisonburg is like my second home. I love the city, and now that it's grown up a little in some ways, but not gotten out of hand (it has a lot of new amenities like Barnes & Noble and some chain restaurants that appease the general population), I think it's a great little place. It's also nice to know that after 10 years of being away from the 'burg a lot of the small restaurants (Jess' Quick Lunch, The Little Grill) have survived. There are some new places, too, which is always good.

Anyway... The race was through downtown- 1.2 miles, we had 15 laps to do. The start/finish was on Main St at Court Square, turn left on Elizabeth, left on Liberty, and then make the U-turn where Main St splits into Main and Liberty. It's a course that's been raced before, but I had never raced there.

The race started with a few fast laps, and then the attacks started. Many were attempted, including one by me. I took off on the headwind/uphill on Liberty, and looked back at the 100m gap I'd opened. SOLO. Ouch. I knew it wouldn't stick, so I sat up and waited for the group. I figured somebody would go with me.

This race was a little sketchy. There were a few guys who were grabbing each others' jerseys, and suuposedly a punch thrown at one point. There were guys with no cornering abilities in tight but smooth turns braking in the turns and opening up HUGE gaps going into the headwind section.

With about 3 to go, I started moving up. I thought we had about 6 to go- the lap board read 3, but I thought it was for the Juniors, who were on the course at the same time as us (stupid decision. But that's another story I'll write to the officials). Then we hear a bell and the announcer is telling the Juniors that they're on their last lap - leaving us with 2 to go. So I'm a little futher back than I want to be, and work on moving up in the headwind.

I made it pretty close to the front on the back side of the last lap, but somebody moved up on the outside and boxed me in from the inside. I came out of the u-turn somehow on the outside of the course, not where I wanted to be but not in bad position. Then came the awful sound of the Cat 4 rider who crossed my wheel and put his rear derailleur into my front wheel at 32mph. I was certain the 14/17/14 spokes in that wheel, being SUPER thin, were going to all snap and I was going to be left riding a wheel with little tension. I stiffened up and moved a little to my right, allowing the aforementioned rider a little space, saving my front wheel (and body) from impending disaster, and leaving me to start my sprint a second time, from further back than I'd previously been. I went hard to the line with no leadout.

I think I got about 15th, but the field was separated into 3s and 4s separately, so I'm not sure where I ended up in my group. I do know that I was the top Richmond Ciclismo rider in the race of the 4 of us that were there.

Overall, I can't count the race as a bad one. Given slightly different circumstances I think I could have been up pretty high in the placing. I know I have the fitness, now I just need a little luck and better positioning in the final few laps.