RR: RFK Crit - CAT5 (May 25) THIRD PLACE!

RFK Critirium
CAT5 Race - 8am
15 miles total (9 laps I think)
Course: around the RFK parking lot, 100% flat, lots of turns formula 1 style!
Results: http://www.hubracing.com/criterium/rfk2008/2008_results.htm

RR:
I get to the race about 45 mins prior to the start. A little late for me, but I did not want to get outta bed in the morning! I register and hop on the course quickly meeting up with two NCVC riders. Hey, I figure they must know the course right? I ride a bunch of the lines around the turns figuring out if there were any shady spots but really only saw some dirt on turn 3 (hard right) but it wasn't going anywhere so it would be fine. I do some tempo to get the HR up about 20 minutes prior to the race and shed my gear with 5-10 mins to go. Get over to the line and get a front spot. Lots of teams in the field with very few unattached riders. The most dominant team is NCVC being the only team with over 3-4 guys. Prior to the start, I notice a guy from Latitude (green and blue?) that won the Junior race the day before. Figure he should be a good wheel to ride.

Whistle blows and it's off. I sit in the top 10 or 15 for almost the entire race. The first lap we take the turns pretty slowly to make sure all the guys can actually turn and surprisingly no one had any trouble. This is seriously the best I've seen CAT5 riders handle in the turns. Even the CAT4/5 races I goto have some sketchy riders. Maybe too because I was near the front, I avoided some of that as well. I notice that a lot of the other riders are not taking the inside lines of most of the turns hard and use this as a way to hop a spot here and there when the peleton is all stretched out. I had decided to do very little work today and see what I had for a sprint or to get in a breakaway group. So many riders seemed willing to control the pace so whenever I kinda got thrown to the front I would just grab a drink and look over my shoulder to hop on the wheel of the guys coming up the sides. I also made sure I was close to the Latitude guy for most of the race. He seemed to respond to most moves and I could just sit on his wheel no prob.

Last two laps things start to ram up a bit. A few new guys come to the front and try to hammer. I find myself in about 20th with 1/2 a lap to go. I almost clip a cone on the inside of the S turn in the back but move up hopping on another wheel. Coming down the backstretch I move up the inside to about 10th, take the turn on the inside hard and pop out of the turn hopping on a wheel in about 6th. I get pulled up to 4th and pass them both .. now only about 50 yards left and I'm 1/2 wheel behind an NCVC guy. Grit my teeth and pass the guy to get 3rd behind the Latitude guy and a purple guy. Wow, my first place! woohoo! I'm stoked and although a win would be awesome, 3rd isn't crappy!

The only thing I would change is that I missed hopping on the Latitude guy's wheel with 3/4 of a lap to go because I was on the wrong side of a wheel. He moved up into the top 5 whereas I got pushed back to 20th. Had I held his wheel, I could have perhaps given him a run for it. Ah well. Next time. After talking to him after the race, he mentions that Jim McNeely comes to his shop every now and then. Very overconfident kid. He said something along the lines of "I knew I could pull half that race and still win today if I had to". Seemed nice though. =)