Louisville Criterium - 35+/Cat. 4 Race

April 24, 2005

I was supposed to be in Grand Junction running a 25-mile trail race, but that seemed way too hard. Much better to stay in town and do this bike race, as it lasted only 40 minutes. Plus they had the always-enticing 35+/Cat. 4 division where old, slow guys like myself stand a better chance of placing well and we stand a better chance of staying vertical as well.

The morning was quite cold , 40 degrees or so, and I had left my only pair of leggings at the office. I almost raced with my running tights over my bike shorts, but I didn’t need anything else making me look like a nerd. The one saving grace of this tactic would be to hide my legs. My mantra at these races, mostly to save my ego, is that I have the cheapest bike and the hairiest legs. In this was it wasn’t true! I saw one guy with hairier legs than me and I even think he was on a cheaper bike.

I rode around with my running tights on to warm-up a bit. Of course, I would have stayed warming sitting in my truck, but I had to get the muscles moving. After stripping down to my race kit, I found a teammate, Dan Franklin, at the start. We rode around a bit discussing strategy, which we both knew would likely be useless, though it was fun all the same.

My friend Jeff McCoy came out to watch the race and he brought a still camera and a video camera. It would be nice to see some photos of my race. Typically my buddies all race in the later Cat. 3 race and no one is there to watch me race. Thanks, Jeff!

Photo 1: I'm leading the peloton on the left (red/white helmet). photo by Jeff McCoy

The race probably only had 40-50 riders. It was a nice, manageable size. At the start, I fumbled around with my pedal so long that I was DFL and gapped before ten seconds had elapsed. Dan asked me, “Are you in yet?” I told him to go, to get in the pack. He did, but he kept looking back over his shoulder for me. I eventually got clipped in (and this is reason I shouldn’t be entering any cross races) and gave chase. I pushed hard and caught on the back about halfway through the first lap. I went by Dan, hoping he’d latch on, but he didn’t. At the bottom of the long, gradual hill that leads back to the start/finish line, I started to move up and I finished the lap in the middle of the pack.

Paranoid about crashes and knowing crits aren’t my strength, I moved up to near the front to stay out of trouble. I knew I’d do more work here, but it was worth it to be safer. I also rode more on the edges of the peloton for the same safety reason. By the second lap I noticed a big guy in an ICCC racing kit and sure enough it was my friend Dan Miller. In the back of the pack, some riders were being shed and unfortunately one of them was Dan Franklin. He caught back on twice, but the third time was too much and he rode in a second group. This group was eventually pulled from the race. I was surprised to see Dan on the sidelines cheering me on about halfway through the race. I assumed he had flatted because I know him to be a strong rider.

Photo 2: Working hard and spending too much time on the front. photo by Jeff McCoy

I attacked on the eighth time up hill the hill. Of course, I had no chance of staying away, though I got a nice gap on the field. I wanted two or three others to jump out and join me. The only chance to stay away in a crit is to get some partners in a break. I had no takers and the peloton chased me down by the start/finish line. I sat in the pack, usually in the top ten for a few laps, recovering. They announced a prime and a couple riders went hard for it, but they sat up and we caught them shortly afterwards.

There was some drifting of lines into the corner and one rider, Dan Miller, was reprimanded rather vociferously. But generally, I liked the course and think the pack rode safely. Finally, we got the five laps to go sign. We were still a pack of 25 or more and the peloton seemed to content to just cruise on in to the inevitable sprint finish. Not being a sprinter, I wanted the hardest pace possible. There was a team of five in this race and you’d think they’d have people attacking constantly here, letting the pack chase each one down, but they didn’t do anything. I went the front to drive the pace. I knew it wasn’t the best strategy, but I didn’t just want to sit there.

I led the entire second to last lap, moving over a couple of times for someone else to take up the pace, but each time everyone refused. Everyone thought they were Allesandro Pettachi or Jeb Dunnuck. Finally a group swarmed to the front with one lap to go. I tucked into 10-15^th position and rested up on the downhill section, preparing myself for a last final push up the hill. I started working going really hard at the bottom of the hill and I moved up, passing riders. With 150 meters to go, a rider hit Dan’s back wheel and went down really hard, taking a few more riders with him. I pushed hard for the line, but died a bit short and got passed, slipping down to 5^th place. Still it was my best ever finish in a criterium. Granted I’ve only done three total and this was my first in the 35+/Cat. 4 division.

Figure 1: My heart rate and altitude profile for the race.

The race last 39.5 minutes, so they timed the race accurately. My watch recorded 780 feet of climbing during that time, which seems high. From my heart rate/altitude graph, it looks like we did 21 laps. The course is described thusly:

“A 0.6 mile loop encompassing Centennial Parkway, West Century Drive and Century place. The gradual leg burning power climb allows very little recovery, prepare to hurt.”

So that’s only 13.6 miles and averaging only 21 mph or so. That’s doesn’t sound that fast and it probably wasn’t. No one seemed to really want to jack up the pace much. Oh well.