Berkeley Bicycle Club Crit 7/18/2010

Category: W1/2+3
Field Size: ~30
Length: 50 min
Teammate: Linda Elgart
Place: 7th

The course was a nice four-corner crit, each lap being only 0.6 miles. After turn two there was a bit of a rise, then it went back down after turn 3. The pace was kind of fast for the first couple of laps, but then it slowed down. There were a number of attacks and breaks, but for the first half nothing stuck. I was actually kind of stuck near the back for a while, because I wasn't sure of the corners - they'd warned us not to go more than 2 wide, since 3 was uncomfortable and 4-5 meant crashing, so I was pretty tentative. I got more comfortable after several laps, and I moved up some, latching onto Linda's wheel once or two. This was Linda's second race of the day, so she wasn't up for being super aggressive (having won the most aggressive rider award in her first race of the day), but it was still nice to have a teammate there. About 33 minutes in, there were about 6 riders up the road, but well within sight - maybe 4 seconds up? I didn't count how far up they were, but I decided it was time for me to quit messing around and bridge up. It took me less than a lap to catch on, and a couple of people followed me, so we ended up with about 11 riders in the "break". At that point, since the field wasn't big to begin with, it was more just the first half of the peloton. A couple of teams had two people in the group, so I made sure to pull my share but no more, since they kept trying little attacks. The last lap was crucial to the finish, since pretty much the first couple of people around the turn 3 can hold position to turn 4, then finish in something close to the order they round the last corner in. Naturally, almost everyone (including me) tried to make a move on the back stretch. Unfortunately, I got pushed to the far right, and was forced to drop back for the turn, so I was about 8th coming out of turn 3, and I ended up placing 7th. It was a good race, and the little hill kept it interesting.