Race Report: Leonardtown Criterium, Cat 3/4

Like yesterday's race at Poolesville, the Leonardtown Criterium was not even on my radar of events to tackle this year. My buddy Nick S., the former front lineman, wanted to race it (his oh-so-thorough race report is here), as did Catherine, so the peer pressure was on. I have been riding and racing well, so why not?

You know, a 200-mile week that included the Poolesville Road Race, perhaps? Or maybe there's another reason I hesitate to pin on a number before technical criteriums.

Whatever. I pinned on the number and lined up next to five of my NCVC teammates including Nick (Cat 4), the young Justin M. (4), Ray (4), Yon (3), and speedy Harry F. (3) who had raced Master's earlier in the day. These are all pretty fun guys to ride, race, and have a beer with, so I was excited.

The course opened immediately after the Women's 1/2/3 race finished. I was a bit unnerved by a few things. First of all I had some business to do in the porta-johns immediately before the race. While I was in line for the porta-crappers, Catherine had been sitting pretty near the front of her race. On the next lap, she simply was not in the pack at all.

Great. Luckily Yon was able to track her down as I did my business, and I checked up on her briefly before jumping on the course to take two preview / warm-up laps (I had a good warm-up on the trainer though).

I take my warm-up laps at speed to practice the corners, but today that worked against me and Justin. We did two laps, and everyone else did only one. That means we started near the back of the group! Not good in a technical crit.

The course is shaped like an arrowhead, with a STEEP and SHARP downhill-to-uphill right turn before a narrow stretch at one end, then two basic and fast 90-degree right turns before the start finish. The line is about 150-200 meters after the last turn.

The race started fast and the pace sustained ruthlessly for the first 1/3 of the race, no doubt. The sharp turn kept giving me problems because I was never happy with the line I took through it. I'd slow down excessively into it and then have to sprint to close my own gap and sneak into a draft.

Within a few laps, the back of the pack had shattered. I had been tailgunning the race for a few reasons: (a) my poor starting position, which was my fault; (b) my lower back muscles had been killing me, and that's what I do when my back hurts in case it spasms, locks up and I have to drop out; (c) I did not have the testicles to bomb through the sharp turn, or the strength to move up through the pack.

Racing in the style of David Moncoutie, who likes to be off-the-front or at the back, I chose to be a tailgunner. Was this a smart decision? Probably not, but I was able to control my positioning throughout the first half of the race and overcome the gaps of the weaker guys in front of me.

If you're reading this and think this is a good strategy, then hear this: I RACED THE FIRST HALF OF LEONARDTOWN LIKE A WEENIE. I did know, however, that I had the legs to race from arriere du peloton, and the necessity was there. I started this race tired. Do not use this approach by any means. I might as well have been on the sideline for the first half of the race. I was feeling that poopy so I decided to stay out of the mix until my legs came around.

It was comforting to see a few familiar faces at the back with me - Martin A. from DVR/Bike Rack and I had a conversation of sorts about how much more we preferred road races. A Bike Doctor guy whose name I forgot asked if I was "that guy" with the blog (yep, here's your shout-out!) and then we discussed the threatening sound of the following moto. I make it sound easy, but these were stuttered words through sprinting accelerations, short lulls, and a lot of pack shuffling.

Halfway through the race, the legs came around and the pace eased up. Basically, any rider that I had passed eventually got dropped but I managed to hold the pack. I heard the moto close behind me a few too many times, and when I could see fewer and fewer racers in front of me with the pace easing, I knew I'd made the selection. About 20 guys survived; only Harry and I were still in it for NCVC.

With about 8 laps to go, a group of for guys went up the road at the perfect moment - the racing at its fastest. It was two Bike Doctor riders (Alex and Bruno), Brigham from R1V, and some other guy. Bike Doctor had a huge presence in the peloton of survivors and had been laying the smackdown on the pace, but their attempt to block was thwarted by Harry, a motivated Skanska rider, and a guy in black/white/yellow (what kit is that?).

About halfway through on the backside, when Harry was at the front, I got a great tow up from a big dude and used it to launch myself up to the break. It took me flying through both turns, down the start/finish stretch, and until just before the sharp corner to catch the guys, but I caught 'em. The guys in the wind probably didn't know that though, haha. I was hiding from the wind.

It was a clean bridge over a substantial gap, so I told myself before the corner, "This will be the most important effort of your race. Stick with 'em after the turn!"

Through the sharp turn, though, I was gapped immediately. The bridge had burned too many matches in a few moments, and the break rode away from me. I just could not hold it. My fatigued legs and drowning lungs would not answer the demands that my mind can usually overpower them with. I looked back to the main group, took a sip of water, then sprinted in between turns 2 and 3 as they overtook me. Luckily I was able to catch on again pretty easily.

The move was made, and the "other guy" from the break faded away too (at least I think there were originally 4 people up there).

Somewhere before or after that break, there were a few moments of mayhem. Tacks had been thrown all over the course all day (Catherine was just one victim of many) and my friend Dan D. (Contes/V-Day) took a nasty spill because of one on turn 2. Three guys barreled into and over him. A few of them managed to take a free lap and jump back in.

With a handful of laps to go, a few individual riders were doing some work to pull back the chase. I had told Harry to let me know how I could help him - but I was pretty much useless. With help from some other riders in black kits (dunno who), he put in some great efforts to reel in the break, but it was futile.

Martin actually put in a HUGE effort to speed up the pack on the backside with three laps left, thinking he was working for his boy Tony, who'd won Poolesville on Saturday. Little did he know that Tony had taken the driveway route on the sharp corner. Last I saw of him he was riding in the grass next to the road weed-whacking or something. (Ed: Tony had a mechanical and had to pull safely off the course intentionally.)

The break was bound to stick, so I thought about letting Martin know that Tony was out of the race. Two things were going on though, they're good guys, but a different team - Martin burning his matches would only benefit me (sorry pal!). I was in absolutely no position to leave the draft, ride in the wind up to him and say, "Hey, you can calm down, Tony's gone and I don't feel like going this hard." His pace kept the group strung out.

The situation differed on the final lap. I had managed to sneak into fifth or sixth wheel before the sharp corner, which was awesome. I wanted to surge immediately after corner 2 and make it a LONG sprint. That's how I roll.

Unfortunately, the leaders took the gutter route on the left, and slowed down. Riders came up on our right and similarly sat there, so I was pinned to the left gutter. I even remember saying out loud, "oh this sucks." A few more guys flooded the right, so I was near the back and left.

All or nothing now: through turn 2 FLEW up on the left gutter past a few sedentary guys hoping to make up ground. I took turn 3 quick, and gained a bit more positioning for the sprint. I was in the top 10 now, but my kick was used up and a few guys passed me before the line. I finished as lucky number 13.

Before our sprint, Alex and Bruno had dropped Brigham, giving Bike Doctor a powerful 1-2 finish, respectively. Good on them boys for aggressive and impressive racing once the selection of finishers had been made.

Thoughts:

- Usually, I wouldn't waste energy on a bunch sprint but the pack was pretty small. I thought I would have a chance at the money, but had lost my good positioning before turn 2. I should have been able to predict the swarm and either be patient at the back and swarm up, or jolt before I got pinned to the left gutter.

- After the race, I had considered reporting a specific rider for littering during the race. It baffled me that TWICE in a 45 minute criterium I saw him throwing wrappers or trash on the course. How and why was he eating during a short, fast, technical crit? If he could do that, why couldn't he put the wrappers back into the pocket of his skinsuit (and it did have a pocket!).

Instead of reporting him, I just talked to him during the cool-down. Leonardtown is gracious to host this race, and as much as that sharp corner SUCKS BALLS, we don't need to be throwing trash on people's driveways here or at any other venue. Hopefully he does not think I am a dick for politely mentioning it face-to-face, and hopefully he got the message. (Though I've been keeping my mouth shut more since recently, at Murad I tried to politely approach a racer about an issue but he cursed me out.) Personal vendettas aside, how do you address issues like littering?

- I usually fear mixed-category races like Cat 3/4 events. Today, the race was surprisingly safe. The usual nihilism of us Cat 3/4 guys seemed to be non-existent, or at least superseded by everyone's exhaustion. It reinforced my belief that although torturesome, faster is safer in bike racing.

- My legs were shredded to start with, and I survived. That is promising and demoralizing at the same time. In a way, I was pissed I had even raced - the two folks that convinced me to sign up did not even finish their events, and I finished mine after a mediocre, unmotivated performance. For what? The fact that I made the selection through the incredibly fast first half of the race, though, reinforced a good bit of toughness. Road races have their moments of fury, but criteriums like Leonardtown have less mercy about shoving riders off the edge. At worst, it is some of the best training.

- -

I do not have any races planned for the next two weekends, but might sign-up last minute for random events in the mid-Atlantic (Wilmington?). After a bunch of race weekends, though, I might just want to get out and ride my bike again. I'll have plenty of races in June and July, with some events in August and September too.

Right now, it's that time of year, about halfway through my "racing season," that a post-ride drink at Dean & Deluca sounds much more appealing than burning myself out by pinning on numbers.