West Sac Criterium - Mar. 20, 2005
by Doran Mori

Let's see...

3pm start...
likely torrential downpour...
crashed out of the previous weekends race...
only road twice the whole week...
won a small bottle of olive oil for a prime.

It seems my conversion to crit scum is almost complete.

After warming up and feeling like a god in one direction and severely broken in the other direction due to a constantly blowing 20-25mph wind I had no idea how I was going to feel for the race. I'm totaly expecting dumping rain at any moment while William points out I'm a bit of pessimist. We had a pack of 40 riders. Reminds me of Alameda Twilight sized packs. Just the right size to have fun with.

Unsure of how my leg would feel in race conditions after trying to break dance while on the bike at Tower District I thought it would be a good idea to tow the pack around for the first lap and complete my warmup. The first prime came around and I was patrolling near the front when Brandon from Arete comes up the side and gives the "anybody going my way" look and I bite and jump on his wheel. I pull the whole tail wind section and he resumes pulling into the head wind. Pretty winded myself I can't come around and the pack catches us as we turn on to the finish straight. Oh well, maybe next time. So I sit in for a while try and to recover. Next prime comes and I'm trying to stay pretty attentive. One guy jumps but it's way too early and the pack chases him down quickly. I wait for the right moment and jump out of the pack into the headwind cranking out of the saddle. Turn into the finish straight, sit down, try to get a bit more aero. Starting to think this straight is way too long for me to make it. I manage to hold everyone off and take the bottle of olive oil prime.

Now I'm sitting up, waiting to integrate myself back into the pack when a handful of guys come up to me and decide it's time for a break to go up the road. I'm thinking wow my chest only feels half caved in I can certainly go with this move. And away we go. I pull through occasionally keeping my heart rate pegged at 190 for at least 5 minutes. I never looked back but I guess we were hovering pretty close to the main pack for a while because the break turned into a split around 15. William and some helpful single person attacks by Team Godspeed kept the rest of the pack far away.

With 2 laps to go everybody starts looking around each other and Jason Reynolds attacks on the tailwind section. I jump to follow and procede to hit about 38mph (tailwind good) and catch him with the pack catching shortly after. Another guy goes off the front through the start/finish. No one follows. Brandon and another guy take off to bridge with Brandon's teammate Mack blocking. I loudly say something like "That's it, they're gone" which finally makes everybody go around Mack. Now we've turned into the wind again. I'm sitting a little too close to the front when Jason starts the sprint in the middle of the second to last straight. I'm thinking this is way too early. Unfortunately I was left out in the wind and Jason took most of everybody else with him. No sprinty for me. I was hoping for a more traditional out of the last corner everybody goes kind of sprint. Maybe next time I can sprint and still get beat just as bad.