Chris Scheetz's EB Crit Report-1/29/12

Race - 01/29/2012 Early Bird Crit
CAT - Open 4
Race Conditions - Clear, dry, no wind

This was my second crit of the season.

They call these training crits, but the 5 preems the organizers mentioned at the beginning did move the tempo up.

At the start, there were some 40+ riders, juniors to masters. My goal for this race was to better position myself on the last lap for a finish of something other than "in the field".

At the whistle, it was pretty much smooth sailing, I took the time to survey the field over a few laps, see who was strong and stay away from those who were sketchy. It was also interesting to see the new race fashions for 2012. I do not recommend wearing argyle compression socks or BMX helmets. There was one funny incident early in the race where the peloton was moving on leg three of the course. One individual made a move, coming up from behind on the right and he was singing some song quite loudly, he sounded like a drunken sailor, very weird. I stayed away from that rider.

I only red lined one time after doing some unnecessary work off the front, but was able to recover after I was caught by drifting back.

Lap 5, 4, 3, 2 were as expected, nothing to report, no crashes. The final lap, I was mid group through turn 1, 2, moved up after turn 3 and at the sweeper turn 4 was able to stay with the surge to be faced with some 300+ meters of straight. I do not have the top end to accelerate for that distance, but did pick a few choice wheels in front of me that I could hold on to, so by the time I was within 100 or so meters of the end, swung right with a clear shot at the line and what appeared to me to be a top 10.

We averaged just under 25mph for the duration of the event.