San Rafael Crit Race Report: by Andrew A.

Chris talked me into doing this race, so not wanting to leave a teammate alone in the pack, I signed up the day before the race and jumped in. Rather than repeat his description, I will just tell a bit from my vantage point.

I saw a grown man fly. I guess I should start from the beginning. Chris and I were lined up near the back of the group to start the race. If you have read my last few reports, I don’t like being near the back during crits. It just plain scares me. So when the bell rang to start the race I did my best to get up front. Took about a lap but I made my way to the front five and sat there for a few laps. Could be the race, the racers or me, but was just not feeling particularly fresh this race. Whatever, I was racing.

About 10 or 15 laps into the race they ring the bell for a preem. Two guys shoot by and I jump on them. I look back and there are three of us with a good gap on the field. The three of us start to sprint with about 100 meters to go. I realize if I want a shot I am going to have to leave it all out there and possibly blow myself up. So instead I sit up and let the other two go for the preem and I get back in the pack.

The addition I have to make to Chris's description of the race is that final turn on the course. Not sure he did it justice. It is as scary a turn as I have ever done in a race. We take that 90 degree, downhill turn at 30+ mph. There is not a whole lot of room for error. I admit, I was a bit intimidated by it. Let's face it, I am 43 and not getting paid for this stuff, so my degree of "going for it" tapered off when I hit my mid 30's.

Final lap comes and guys are fighting for the top 5 to 10 spots. We all know that whoever is in the top five or so coming off the final turn has a real advantage. On the back of the race (before turn three and four) guys are picking up a lot of speed and starting to elbow each other and overlap wheels. My mind starts to take over and I start to rationalize with myself. The internal conversation was not a friendly one. Like the movies with the devil and the angel on each shoulder I had a debate going in my mind of what the heck I was doing here.

I would say coming off of turn four (the scary turn) into the final straight away, I was in 8th spot. That is when things went a bit funny. The wheel I was following suddenly was not there. I glanced up and caught a full grown man flying through the air. Not sure what happened but I watched him sail into the metal gate that was up to keep spectators off the course. I tapped my brakes in order to miss hitting his bike, which was following the rider into the gate. At this point I lost a few spots and did not care! It was one of those bad thoughts we all have when we witness an accident, "thank goodness that was not me".

Finally I got out of the saddle and sprinted home. Ended up finishing 14th overall and 2nd Cat 4 (the results page lists how the Cat 4's faired in the group). This would be a race I will go to again…as a spectator. It must have been darn exciting to watch. I am not going to race it again though, unless somehow I start getting younger.