Niwot Criterium
20th June
Teammates: one (me)
Placing: 10ish out of 30-35ish
As I sat at a Boulder Cafe Saturday afternoon enjoying the sun and good coffee I overheard two cyclists talking about a C\criterium race on Sunday, which brought a lot of riders and good prize money. Naturally I went over and asked them all the details, and before they could ask me if I wanted to join them for a coffee...which I assume they would have, I was off on my way home to suss it out on the internet. I saw on the flyer ‘same day registration’, and thought “giddy up!”
So that brought me to today. The Niwot Criterum , a 8 point crit, with two corners over 90 degrees, flat and fast. With a bit of unexpected lead up (two weeks of long k’s in the Colorado hills) my legs were in for 50minutes of pure fast twitch muscle fibre enjoyment....
I’ll cut to the chase and say it was actually a good race. The gun went and so did my first attack to set the scene. The next 20minutes there was a flurry of attacks between me and the Treads Women’s Team. After two prime sprints my tactic of trying to get away after the sprint was unsuccessful on both occasions. The third prime sprint saw me in the bunch when a Treads rider and another woman (unsure of team) went off the front after the sprint. Straight away I thought they would come back. Then quickly realised no one was chasing! I jumped and was in “no man’s land” for a good three laps. Two riders ahead of me and a chasing peloton behind me. Unfortunately I was gobbled up by the later. With still 20minutes to race I was trying to keep the extremely negative peloton at this point positive and chasing. A few more bridge attempts all being chased down by Treads team ended my day in the peloton. Also surprised to see some faces that I hadn’t seen the whole day whip past me at the finish!
Above all else it was a good work out, and to see where the legs are at after a pretty tough two weeks. I know have some intensity training to look forward in the bid to be fully prepared for Cascade. My last tour before I leave the states home bound!
Until that point I do have another local race in boulder next week, before I head to Canada for a bit of ‘spark up racing’ before Bend, Organ.
Till next time
Ange
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