Madera Stage Race: Criterium 3/13/2010

Category: W3
Field Size: 22
Length: 40 minutes
Teammates: Emily and Josie
Places: 1st (me), 3rd (Emily), and 13th (Josie)

The course was a nice simple 1 mile square loop with four right turns. The start was on the western edge. The northern stretch was nice and smooth, and we had a tailwind. The eastern edge had more of a cross tailwind, and was also pretty nice. The southern edge was slightly rough and bumpy, with a crossing of railroad tracks (thankfully perpendicular), as well as a fierce headwind. The last stretch with the start/finish also had a strong cross headwind. Unfortunately, the race was organized such that the Women's 1/2 field was on the course at the same time as the Women's 3 field. They started the 1/2's first by just over a minute. There were 2 primes, each of which was worth a 5 second bonus in the GC. I contested the first prime, since I saw the chance to latch onto someone else who broke away halfway through the lap, but unfortunately she went far too early, and I waited too long after she was tiring to go out front myself. On the finishing stretch, another rider broke away from the pack and beat me by a wheel. After that, I returned to my strategy of sitting in the back of the pack and getting a good draft in the crosswinds, so that I could really save my energy for the end. Then, on what turned out to be 6 laps to go, we got passed by the 1/2s. This would have been fine, but by the time we hit 5 laps to go, they were only maybe 50-100m in front of us, and a prime was called. So the 3's field surged forward and attacked through the 1/2 field, causing widespread confusion. For at least a lap, maybe 2 (it's all kind of a blur), the fields were partially mixed, even though the motorcycle official was attempting to instruct the 1/2s to ride on the left lane and the 3's to ride in the right. Unfortunately, that simply didn't work out very well, especially since everyone got close together every corner. After much confusion, I realized with about 2.5 laps to go that there had been a successful breakaway from the 3's field that was in front of the 1/2 field, even though the rest of the 3's were mostly behind the 1/2s at that point. I managed to bridge the gap over the course of about a lap, and found that I had joined a group of four riders, including Emily. Since I had latched onto the back, I got a little time to recover, and I launched my final attack coming out of the last turn. I finished the turn very wide of the riders in front of me and sprinted up the left side to get first place. I didn't see it, but Emily sprinted as well to snatch 3rd place. In all of the field mixing confusion, Josie got stuck in one of the later Cat 3 groups, and finished well considering the circumstances. I feel very lucky that I was in a position to see the break up ahead of the 1/2 field and had the opportunity to bridge. That said, great job Emily for being up front when the break happened. I learned in this race that I should work on trying to stay near the front of the pack, so that I can go with the break when it happens instead of getting on the hard way once it's gone. As a bonus for placing, I got a 20 second time bonus, and Emily got 5 seconds for third. Oh, and I also learned that when there are two fields on the same course at the same time, you should be ready for anything, since sometimes crazy things like this can happen.