Tour of KC

Well, after my first road races this weekend I can say two things: I'm happy and I've learned a lot.


The Friday crit didn't have a Cat 5 category, but I still went to support the rest of the team and try and get a feel for what crits were all about. As I didn't race in this one the rest of the team has some good reviews to check out.


Friday was hot and Saturday wasn't any different. After the race on Friday the team went to the Sawmill just across from the course for some food and drink. Karen and I didn't stay too long as I wanted to get enough sleep for the race on Saturday. The Cat 5 race was at 4:30 and it was the first of the category races. Karen and I got to the course a little after 2:00. We had driven around the course the night before so I had a pretty good idea what to expect. It was relatively flat. The two longer sides of the rectangle made up the climb and decent of the .63 mile course. The start/finish was in the middle of the decent and the backside was the climb. This was a really good course for me. It was fairly fast with some good corners and the climb was perfect for really cranking some bigger gears.

I got registered, got my kit on and got the bike ready with about an hour and a half to go before the start. Karen and I found a good shady spot on the course in the beautiful downtown Lee's Summit and I left her to do some warming up, not too hard in that heat. While out riding I ran into both Phillip and Marcus who would be racing the fives with me so we got warmed up together. The time to race started to get closer so we made our way back to the start line. Once they opened up the course for pre-riding we got to get out and get a feel for the course. No real surprises here except for the pre-race jitters. It's been a little while since I've had those before, but it didn't take much to get rid of.

I started the race on the second row on the outside. I knew that I wanted to stay up front because my biggest fear was getting stuck and getting into a situation that I couldn't find a way out of. I was confident in my bike handling skills, not everyone else's. Without much chatter they blew the whistle and we were off. The pace wasn't really bad at all and the turns weren't nearly as hairy as I thought that they'd be with everyone else so close. It didn't take long for the groups to start forming. I did, however, find it hard to hang onto a wheel. The issue wasn't in keeping pace, it was in me feeling comfortable being that close to someone. Moving at race pace, however, I got a real feeling for how important that really was. It didn't take nearly as much effort to hang on to the group when you were right behind someone. This was something I was going to have to work at.


Luckily, I was fit enough to still hang close to the lead group without actually being right on the back wheel of someone. This got better throughout the race as I got a feel for it. There was a lot of learning going on in those first 5 laps or so. At lap 3 they called their first prime and Marcus went after it. I don't know why, but I went after him too. He got such a jump on the rest of the field and me that there wasn't any catching him, but it did put us way out in front. I knew that the pace we were moving at wasn't something that we could hold so I pretty quickly backed off and got swallowed back up. Marcus had spent all of his energy in that one prime and he fell back to 15th where he eventually finished. Our little breakaway had revealed one thing to me, I could easily pass everyone on the backside of the course up that incline with a little effort. After a little rest at the middle of the pack I started moving back up. Within two laps I had settled into sixth place and traded spots with the fifth and seventh place guys for a while.

By this time I knew exactly how I'd try and win this race. I knew that my fitness level and my current energy level would give me a great chance at top three or even a win. With eight laps to go I was in the perfect position to see and easily reach the front of the lead pack I was in should I need to. As the laps counted down I was expecting to see some attacks off the front, but no one ever went. It was my intention to pull every attack back so that we stayed as a group, but not to go out in front until the last possible moment. With three laps to go and still no attacks I decided to move up to third. I knew what was likely to happen. Everyone was waiting for one lap to go and then it was going to be an all-out sprint. I knew I had enough in the tank to sprint at full-speed for an entire lap. I didn't know what the guy who'd been driving most of the race had left, however, I was soon to find out.


With one lap to go I was in third position and I quickly moved into second. All my passing was done on the back side of the course on that small climb. Everyone picked up the pace into the first two corners and I made it a point to take them all at full speed and on the inside keeping them nice and short. Once we hit the climb I knew it was now or never. No one else was pulling away and I knew I could easily put distance on the entire field. I made it a point to stay in the same gear that I was in on the decline so that I could use that on the climb. The years of riding singlespeeds made that possible. It was here that I was most comfortable, besides, I didn't what to have happen to me what happened to the guy I was to pass on that climb. When I started my attack I was already in the big gear I wanted. When the leader noticed me coming around him on the climb I heard click, click, click real fast, but by the time he engaged the gears I was already one and a half lengths in front of him. I executed the next two turns cleanly and I wouldn't be caught. I crossed the line three seconds in front of the second place guy who was actually in sixth place when I started my attack. I had won my first road crit. Ended up with a $75 card to BikeSource, not too bad. This winning stuff is really cool I'll have to try and make it a habit.


Sunday was much cooler, but the course was very different from Saturday. The course was in downtown KCMO near the Power and Light district. The start/finish was at the top of a climb; there was a small dip just before turn one and an immediate steeper shorter climb before turn 2. After turn 2 the backside of the course had a nice downhill right into turn three. It was flat to turn 4, but it went immediately up the hill to the finish. The turns in this course were awesome. I had a great time hitting every one of them at speed. My new bike really moves and corners well and I often would put distance on people by cornering better than them.


The race started in interesting fashion. I got warmed up and headed to the start line with only a few laps of the fours left. With 5 laps to go in the fours the announcer called out that it would be one lap to go. They needed to clear the course for an ambulance to come take care of one of the crashed racers from earlier. This lead to a delay in us starting our race as the course remained closed until the ambulance left. Once the course was open they let us do one 'parade' lap before we lined up again.

I didn't get a good spot during the lineup. I was about three rows back and in the middle. Bad. I'll make it a point not to do that again. When the whistle was blown I was pretty quickly at the rear of the entire pack. It took me three laps to get warmed back up and seven laps to get back up to around sixth place. I hung out there for about four laps and then decided that the pace was a little slow so I went off the front with 10 laps to go. What I didn't know at the time, but I know now was that there was a guy who went way off the front around lap six while I was still climbing back from the crappy start. When I went off the front with 10 laps to go I assumed I was leading. It wasn't until about four laps to go that I heard the announcer calling out times and realized that he was calling out how far back I was from the leader. By the time I realized this I didn't have enough time to bring him back. I started somewhere around 18 seconds back and at the best I was able to bring it back to was eight seconds, but that was as close as I would get. I would cross the line 13 seconds off first for a second place finish in my second ever crit. Not bad, but I still feel had it not been for my rookie mistakes I could've had a great shot at winning that race.

I should've got a better start, then I may have seen the guy jump off the front and been able to bring him back. Dan told me later what my REAL rookie mistake was. The pace car. There was a pace car and I never saw the rear of it. If you don't see the pace car, you're not leading the race. Duh!! That's Bush League. You can bet I won't be making that mistake again!

All in all, I had a great weekend racing and had a great time being part of a team. I love cheering on my teammates and I do like having a cheering section too. It was also really nice hanging out after the races and talking shop. Team Colavita/Parisi is the first cycling team I've ever belonged to. Before, all of my racing had been solo. Being part of a team can't be beat in this sport and in my mind being a part of this team is the best.

Stay Dirty!