P/1/2 Pitt Crit Race Report by Keith Szolusha

Pitt Crit Race Report by Keith Szolusha
P/1/2

The Twilight race called the Pitt Crit p/1/2 field was at 8pm last night (5/7/11). It was cold and windy (50F and 20-30mph with gusts). We watched the very small womens field blow apart early, so it was a little intimidating.

This race was literally night and day compared to the Menlo Park crit that I recently did. Not just because it was actually at night, but because it was fast, technical, longer - 75min. windy, and cold. There were notable fast guys there and people were there for the 20 deep $5k prizelist. Fast Freddy Rodriguez (3 time US pro champion and past Giro d'Italia road stage winner) looks like he's doing some local money races on the Specialized team - he won. Logan Loader, Roman Kilun, Bernard Van Ulden, Steve Reaney (current US elite crit champion), Sterling Magnell and many others including an under 23 national crit champion and many past champions.

Seems like we had 80-100 guys. There were callups, music, announcers, podium models, prizes, lights, etc. Downtown Pittsburg is best described at 'the pit', so I am changing the name of this one to Pit Crit.
Race was fast and hard. It was a challenge to finish. Many guys just blew up with the constant single file pace. At one point during the race, there were 15 straight (1k with 5 turns) laps that must have been 35mph single file with no change of positions or chance for changes. It was crazy how fast it got. Guys would blow up in the middle of the pack and then others would have to make up the lost ground. I was on alert the entire race and never let anything significant open up. I didn't get to the front, but when we hit 8 laps to go (the first time that they called laps and put out cards) it seemed to ease up. There was a 5 person break just off the front and I think that everybody decided that it was not going to be hard to catch it or that we wouldn't catch it and they decided to save it for the sprint. As a matter of fact, the end got so easy that the pack didn't single file until 2 to go and it was a chance for the crazies to dive corners and get into the front of the pack. I slowly moved around in the pack and took what opened up in front of me without forcing anything. I debated about diving corners and making a play for the front, but the rest of the race had been so hard that it was nice to have an easy pace and rest for a bit. At the end, on the last lap, gaps were opening, and I had to jump a few. I ended up speeding in at about 38th position. A lot of guys didn't finish, so just finishing this one with the pack was a victory. It was really super fun and I didn't notice the cold air when racing because it was such a hard race.

I came home late from the race and had trouble sleeping because I was so revved up from racing so hard so late. It was strange.

Later,
k
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