Longmont Crit - 08/27/06

(LEFT, Crossing the line, well out in front; BELOW, R to L: J-Rod, Titus, Andrew, Jerry, Nate)



An omen, an ego and a snap decision. This is what the race boiled down to, and I will get to each in turn.

First, the omen. On the way home from church this morning, I noticed an eagle in the middle of the road. It had brought down a rabbit and was feasting on its remains. Luckily, the raptor was in the "washout" section between the coming-and-going traffic, so no car was going to hit it. Native american indians view eagles as omens relating to power. Seeing this eagle, I knew it was going to be a solid day for Feedback Sports. After warming up, I found Andrew and Jonathan at J-Rod's minivan. First words out of my mouth were, "It's time to meet the man with the hammer."

Second, the ego. This would be mine. Suprised? The 0.7-mile course was like the outline of a block letter "L", with all right turns except the one left turn where the two lines of the letter intersect. The course was closed and we had 2 lanes to ourselves. A great course, to say the least. But, there were a lot of people who wanted to go to the front, so that made for some sketchy riding. A couple of laps into the race, I realized I was hitting my brakes into every, friggin' turn. I wasn't feeling safe, and that's not right. A CU rider in particular was making me nervous (Turned out to be good to get away from him, as on the final lap he crashed and took out a few riders, including our very own Titus, who was having a hell of a race at the time).

This was a 45-minute race. Within the first 4 laps (less than 8 minutes), there were two primes. Leading into the first one, I decided to go to the very front just to string things out. I was not going to sprint for the prime, as my role for the day was to conserve energy and set Andrew up for the victory. Coming out of the last turn of every lap, there was about a 300m drag to the finish line and, as predicted, several guys sprinted for the prime. Good for them. A couple of laps later was the second prime. By this time, I was in about 20th position and realized I had been yo-yoing from the very front to about 20th those first 4 laps. On the finishing straight leading up to the 2nd prime, I moved up. Two guys were off the front, sprinting for the prime. Again, good for them.

But, once they finished their battle and the winner of the prime was decided, they sat up to be reintegrated to the pack. This is where the snap decision came into play. It was here I decided I'd had enough of the idiotic shenanigans. As I would muse to Andrew after the race, "There were too many tools in the shed." I went to the front with the intention of lifting the pace enough to string the race out and whittle the large pack down to a select 10-15 riders. This would serve to make it a safer and smoother race for all. As I peered over my shoulder a couple of times that first lap, I noticed someone on my wheel and everyone strung out. Perfect. Then, no one was on my wheel and I was alone. Interesting. . .

I kept my pace constant. I accelerated my pedaling into the turns, dove them hard and never even feathered my brakes. Within a couple of laps, my lead was 10 seconds. Then 15. Then 30. When it hit about 15 seconds, I decided I was going for it unless and until the peloton started to noticeably reel me in. They never did. And I was lapping rider after rider. Since lapped riders needed to quit the race, I was spurred on even more. If I could catch any of those Izze guys, then it would strengthen our goal of winning the BAT (Best All-around Team) honors. I did catch quite a few of them; more grist for the mill. . .

The 45 minutes were counted down until they switched over to counting down the final 6 laps. With about those 6 laps to go, I wondered if I had gone too early. But, my lead was not shrinking. Afterwards, Andrew would tell me that it was not for a lack of trying by a few riders on several occasions. Likewise, Feedback Sports apparently did a great job of blocking at the front as well. Nice!! I was "all in." There was no turning back.

Every other lap, I would look back to see that my advantage was not shrinking. Still, I surged the second-to-last lap in anticipation that the group behind me would probably be lifting the pace itself. As I came up to the line for the final lap - the bell lap - there was no bell. Hmmm. . . had I miscounted those final 6 laps? I didn't think so, but I wasn't going to risk it. As I hit the finish line on what I thought was the final lap, I asked the announcer if this was the finish or if I had another lap. He nodded his head. So which is it??? There was no, "So here comes your winner" type announcements or anything. Which I found strange after he had been talking up my "brave breakaway" the entire race. Playing it safe, I decided to motor for one more lap. Coming in to the finish line, I raised my arms in victory as I crossed the line. Funny thing was, it was at the end of my victory lap! The race was, indeed, over my previous time across the line. Oh, well. Better to cross the line in first without raising your arms up than to raise them and only lose. Had that not been the last lap and had I started to coast, I would have been caught. Better safe than sorry.

Great job to Andrew for winning the bunch sprint and nabbing 2nd place on the day. And J-Rod ended up 7th. Nice!! Talk about a 1-2-7 knockout punch for the BAT standings! Hats off to Jerry as well, who came to the front a lap too early to lead out Andrew. He still managed to hang on for a respectable finish, even though his legs were dead for the true last lap. And, finally, back to Titus. Riding stronger than I've ever seen him ride in a crit, he got taken out on the final lap by that CU yokel mentioned at the start of this story. What a jackass!! Hold your head high, Titus - you done good!

Next on the list, Gore Pass on September 9th. Time to forge a bigger hammer!

Ride safe.