Watermelon Crit

It's been awhile since my last real race. Last weekend I decided to race the NJ State Individual Time Trial. Not my favorite event. I really don't like time trials. I have two reasons why; the first being that time trials are very boring, and the second being that I don't have any of the equipment. Oh well I finished 4th in the Jr. 17-18 event. I'm alright with that, still my power outputs were not the greatest and for that I was definitely disappointed. Life rolls on.

Today I took the short trip up to Rutgers for the Watermelon Crit. The only event that I could race was the Jr. 17-18 race. However it would be fun because my teammate Ross would be in the same race, just scored separately for his age division. Our plan for the race was to make it fast. I wanted to get a little cyclo-cross practice in so I planned on jumping off the front from the whistle. After that we were going to trade attacks.

The whistle blew and I was off. I got the holeshot. On the backstretch a Colavita rider bridged up to me, and so I eased off through the second corner. Once out of the corner I quickly gave it another go, this time I got a gap. I pushed the gap out over the next few laps until I was out of sight. I wanted to keep it up and hopefully be able to help Ross out in the field sprint. Sure enough with around 10 minutes left in the crit I had bridged all the way back up to the main group.(Which was only around 8 riders strong.) Shortly after I bridged up we were given 4 laps to go. There were a few attacks before this which Ross had covered perfectly. Things were all together, so I got Ross on my wheel and went to the front. I knew that if I could set a false tempo that it would discourage attacks, and ultimately make things easier. The laps ticked off with no attacks until we were coming through the finishing striaght to get the bell. A CRCA rider attacked out of the last corner, but Ross did an excellent job of letting me know what was going on and I covered the move. Shortly after that a Colavita rider started to move past me on the left. I knew it was now time to set a real tempo and string things out. I took it up to 26-27 mph on the backstretch and through the second corner. I jumped out of the corner and kept the pace high. Finally right before the final corner I started my final effort. We flew through the last corner and gave it about another 75-100m and dropped Ross off with around 200m left. Ross kicked out a nice sprint to take the victory in the field sprint and in his field. I took the overall victory as well as the victory in my field.

All in all it was a great race, Ross rode excellently and our tactics worked perfectly. We made the race and did exactly what we aimed to do.

Peace and Love,
Patrick