This week I had a chance to race twice on weeknights; a criterium here in Boulder on Wednesday evening and then track league in Colorado Springs last night (Thursday).
The criterium on Wednesday was a combined category Women/3/4/5 affair on an American football-shaped course in an industrial park a few miles north of Boulder. I won a pair of primes during the race, and then attacked with a lap and a half to go with a buddy following my wheel. A lap later, we were well clear of the field, and rolled through the finish taking 1st and 2nd easily.
Overall, the race was pretty slow, but it felt good to get out and race on my single road bike (this was only my 3rd single-bike road racing event of the year). Next week, I think I'll step up and ride the Pro/1/2/3 race which promises to be longer and a lot faster than the 3/4/5 race.
Track league on Thursday was a slightly different format than usual. Rather than the normal three races on the program, we had a sprint tournament and a points race. I was running late, so did my warmup on the infield track, and then rode the flying 200m time trial in an 86" gear, nearly bouncing myself out of the saddle in turn three. Before the first round, I changed into a 90" gear.
In the first round, I was matched up with a rider who was very closely matched to me in the flying 200. He managed to jump me with a lap to go, but I was able to follow and then take a run on him going into turn three. I took that ride by a slim margin, but enough to advance.
In the 2nd round, I was paired up with my friend and former teammate, Mike Giem. The race played out similarly, but with Mike holding me off by about half a wheel diameter, moving him to the semi-finals and sending me to the 5th-8th final ride.
In the 5-8 final, I attacked in turn two on the first lap and opened a healthy gap into the stiff headwind on the back straight. Danny Hiller lead the chase, but the other three riders' hesitation prevented them from receiving any draft benefit from riding behind me. I stayed clear to take 5th place.
A 30-lap points race with sprints every five laps capped off the night. The wind picked up, causing the tempo of the race to vary between blazing fast on the home straight and nearly stalled on the back straight. After the first point sprint, I bridged up to the two lead riders and rode with them until the 2nd point sprint where I took maximum points. With 20 laps remaining, the field caught us, and I sat in to recover from the solo bridging effort. In doing so, I missed some key moves, and wound up not being in position to contest any more of the sprints. The points from the 20-to-go sprint put me into 5th place; not the greatest result I could hope for, but ok after a hard week of racing and travel.
