John T's Wente Crit Report-4/29/12

Wente Crit - Sunday in Livermore

Cat 4 35+
Teammates - just me
Field size - I heard 79, felt like 100
Place - 14th

I have been feeling good for the last couple of weeks. I've been riding a lot of the PV group rides and holding my own. I got a super good warm up before the crit. A buddy sent me what he says is the best crit warm up and that most riders do not warm up properly. So I tried it. I get to the line sweating and can't believe how many guys are lined up. I do my best to stay near the front but the obvious sock turning inside out constantly pushes you back if you get forced to the middle. There are 5 primes during the race. I try for the 3rd on and end up 3rd in the sprint. I didn't want to waste the energy, but the pace was not very high for the race and I wanted to test the distance for the sprint. There was 1 bad crash I heard behind me. They had to bring in the Ambulance for one guy. There were almost several more crashes. One guy came flying into my left side shoulder. I kept my bike upright while the guy was leaning his whole body against me as it finally got his bike back upright. He was hit from behind and I heard yelling and screaming. The rider thanked me for staying upright and saving him a nasty crash on the back straight away. I thanked him for being 140 lbs!!

2 laps to go, time to move up. I do my best but everyone is getting real squirmy as both sides surge. Teams are getting into position. 1 lap to go, I use the gutter to try and get to the front, I get to about 8th position. Final turn, everyone in the race is surging up the side, I get blocked in the middle. I desperately look for a way to the sides...nothing. The leads outs are gunning already. I see a very small gap that opens in the middle...I pucker up and shoot through and just start sprinting. I move from about 25th to what I thought was maybe top 10, but I guess I was 14th. The same little guy that I saved earlier in the race is just in front of me, I am in his draft and going for the pass near the line and he unclips doing 30!! I'm probably 10 meters or more behind the winner. Bummer! I felt good but obviously have a lot to learn about getting into position for the sprint. The race was pretty fun, but I think I prefer the circuit or road races.