HHH Crit

When I went to sign up for the HHH cat 5 crit I sadly discovered that it was full. No racing for me. I left. Then I got to thinking - maybe I could convince them to let me race in the Cat 4 race! I found out that Bonnie was the head referee and she would be the one that would make all these kinds of decisions. But, I couldn't talk to her 'cause she was in a meeting with the other referees. So I had to wait.

And wait.

And wait - John and Peter were getting rather impatient with me. (We'd already missed dinner at the Remington with Sabeard.)

Finally, at 9:30 Bonnie showed up. I presented my case. She asked me what races I'd already raced - my mind went blank. Finally I started to remember the names of some of them and rattled them off. She asked a few more general questions and then asked to see my UCI license - and then gave me the okay! I was in. Oh oh. I was kinda hoping she'd say no. Then I find out it's 60 minutes plus 5 - now I really wish she'd said no...

Night before the crit Johnny decides to help me out - breakes out the B12 and gives me a shot. Then breakes out his little pharmaceutical bag... my own little doctor working on me.

Day of the crit. We show up to the race about 1 hour early - lots of time for me to warm-up and get a feel for things. I start my warm up and realize immediately that the legs aren't feeling good. This is not good news, as I know this race is going to be fast. I start ramping up my heart rate and after a few hard sprints I realize that I can't even get my heart rate up! oh oh.

Cat 5's finish. Cat 4's now take to the course to warm-up. After a few laps and taking some of the corners at speed I know now that I'm really in trouble - this course is safe, yes - but it's FAST! There will be no slowing down in the corners.



They call us to the line. It's time. I'm in the third row - a little further back than I'd like, but I'm on the outside so I should have a fast line to the first corner. I hear my name called, look over and there's one of my BJ friends taking my pic - then I hear my name again and it's someone else doing the same thing! Hey, this is pretty cool. Instructions are almost over - we're good to go.

BANG! - okay, it was a whistle, but how do you make a whistle sound? tweet?

Before we hit the first corner, a left-hand 90 degree turn we're up to 37km/hr - and we're still accelerating around it - my HR is already starting to climb - that's actually good news to me 'cause I know that it's going to take a high HR to be able to stick with this crowd! A slight down-hill to turn 2, a hard 90 followed by a sweeping left into torn 3, then a hard 90 into turn 4. Another left 90 into turn 5. Turn 6, another 90- watch out here, there's broken pavement in the middle of the turn. Now into the headwind for a couple of blocks. Turn 7 is another 90 for a block, turn 8 is another 90 taking you onto the finishing straight.

I am right in the middle of things and know that this is not going to last - I'm hoping that the pace will ease up a bit if I can just hang with 'em long enough!

Lap two is faster - we never drop below 40km/hr on a single corner. Because the corners are being taken at such speed there's no slowing down for recovery - it's just flat out. I fight through the inside on a couple of corners and move up a couple of spots. (Amazing how far you can lean a bike over when you're riding 165 cranks with speedplays!) But then I lose a couple of spots 'cause I picked the wrong line on the next corner - it's back and forth.

Guys are getting spit out the back like crazy. I'm still hanging, but just barely. On lap 4 the guy 3 wheels up from loses contact. Nobody else can close it and before I know it I'm 30 feet off the back. Oh oh - this is really gonna hurt to try and get back on! I sprint hard, and almost make it, but the peleton kicks it up another notch and I"m blown out the back.



Over the next couple of laps I manage to keep them in sight and every time I go by another dropped rider I encourage him to jump on with me and fight to get back on. It seems every time I pick someone up we lose the guy that got on just before. I'm hurting. I look down on lap 12 and see that my HR is at 188 (my max is 192) - and suddenly the dizzy feeling I'm having is explained a little. I ease up slightly to bring my HR back to 184. Holy cow this hurts!

I know my time is getting short - in fact - it turns out that I'm down to one lap left before I get pulled.

Everytime I've gone around I've heard friends calling my name and encouraging me - it helps, but I'm completely outclassed. Soon I see 'ol Bonnie standing in the middle of the road waving me in - I"m done. As I go around my last lap the pace car blows by me and I get myself out of the way as I know these guys aren't far from me.

I stop. I can't breathe. I stop in front of Tall163, Sabeard, and JohnnyE - I can't even hardly hold my bike up. I'm cooked. We say our goodbye's, and John makes me run for the van so that we can make our flight. I don't run so good, but I do make it.

Wasn't much of a strategic race for me - more of a "agggghhhhhh this hurts!" kind of a day. I averaged 179HR - I covered 18.15km at an average speed of 38.5 - I really started to slow down the last lap as I was completely blown. I didn't make it half-way, but I wasn't the first guy pulled off, so I wasn't the worst!