We started our stay in Colorado Springs by meeting up with Christine's family at Colorado College (where her cousin is a freshman). After some lunch, I suited up for the criterium. Because of the way the arranged theose categories, I was able to do two races (a cat 4/5 race and a cat 3/4 race). First up was the 4/5. At the start line, I missed clipping into my pedal, but I didn't lose many places. The really killer part of the course was a short steep hill. That thing was surprisingly killer on my legs and lungs. After spending some time on the front and the back of the pack, I ended up finishing somewhere in the middle of the group.
Immediately after the 4/5 race, I had to line up for the 3/4 race. I was too tired for this fast paced group and only had about 15 minutes in my legs. It was killer. I wish I could have stayed in longer, but it wasn't meant to be.
Those were crits 3 and 4 for me this year, which is 4 more than I did last year. I don't care how many crits I do, I'll still be nervous at the start line. I am, however, feeling better during the race.
In a stroke of great luck, Jamie had a birthday party on the same weekend were were planning on being in Colorado Springs. We spent the evening catching up with some people that we don't get to see too often and it was a great time. I hated that I had to get up at 5AM the next morning because I would have loved to stay later.
The race du jour for Sunday was the Air Force Academy road race. It's a great course, and I'm happy they put on a race. My start time was 7AM (ugh), so we got up really early to eat breakfast and get all my crap together. As usual, Christine was the ultimate teammate, pinning on my number and helping me get my other stuff together.
I was able to stay at the front of the race pretty easily. My fitness is better than in past years, but also my comfort level in the pack has improved greatly. When we hit the climbing section on the first lap, we paced picked up a bit, but it wasn't too much of a struggle to hang on. When we hit the climbing section on the second lap, I made a mistake.
For the whole race there were two teams that regularly had 3-4 guys at the front of the group. When the climb really started, those two teams each had a rider attack. I was at the front of the group and decided to sit up and see what would happen with their move. Shockingly, their teammates flew by me and pulled the whole group with them. It's amazing. For those not familiar with bike racing, when your teammate attacks you shouldn't tow the rest of the field up to them.
I misjudged how small our group had gotten, and I soon found myself off the back and not able to accelerate enough to catch back on. Without the shelter of the pack, I was left to fight the wind solo and I could never catch them. In the end, I crossed the line in 20th place. Not bad, but I know I had the legs to do better. It was another good race learning experience.
Next up on the racing schedule: The Tour of the Gila in New Mexico.
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