Notes
SCF Naganuma Criterium
Cold rainy day with serious wind gusts blowing over the plains.
This first crack at a crit was such an eye-opener into the sufferfest that is road racing. Short intense laps, thankfully only 10 of them my lowly S-4 division.
I was late to line-up and so started near the back of the field and had to battle hard to get to the front end of the pack after a couple of laps.
First few laps was so full-on as everyone jostled for position in the narrow technical circuit. A couple of sketchy moments, but managed to stay upright and avoid being taken out.
WIth 5 laps to go I was in position at the front end of the group, chasing two riders who broke away early, they had about 25 seconds on the field. I definitely did way too much work on the front, including most of the pulling into the heavy wind, and it took it's toll. Still, I managed to bust off the front of the chase pack with two other riders and begin hunting down the two breakaway riders. One of us (not me) was able to reach them (making it three in the break), and one of us (not me) fell away, leaving me in no-mans-land pushing the pace on my own about 5 seconds behind the break, and 10 seconds in front of the chase pack.
By lap 8 I was in the hurt box like never before. All the effort hammering solo into the killer wind just savaged me, lungs and legs on fire. The long sweeping (700m) back straight over the Start/Finish line was some relief, but you had to dig deep to take advantage of the tail wind on that side of the course, pushing close to 50kph down there!
In the end, just couldn't tag onto the front three guys, and crossed the line a few seconds behind in 4th place. Definitely an awesome experience, and will be looking for more in future.