Kjellerup crit

Today we also did a real live crit. I didn't really know what to expect as there was a 70 person field, with 3 saxo bank riders and Michael Rasmussen was making his return to cycling. The first 20 minutes were crazy hard as the riders couldn't carry speed through corners to save their life so I would be doing a full out sprint out of every turn just to stay on the wheel. Eventually a break of 12 went up the road and our team (of only 3 riders) completely missed it. But with so few guys we were hardly in a position to bring it back. Then we rode slow for a while when the rain started. The peleton was going embarrassingly slow through the turns, at least by US crit standards. One rider from another team even told one of my team mates to tell me to slow down in the corners. And I thought I was taking it easy. Anyway, I kept getting more and more frustrated by their lack of pace so with 3 laps to go I followed an attack by a Vacansoleil rider. It turns out we got a gap on the peleton with a Capinordic guy on our wheel. They went super slow through the turn at the bottom of the little hill and then sprinted up the whole way and dropped me a little bit. But I got back at the next corner because they braked and I didn't. I knew that I couldn't let them to that again so I made sure to pass them on the short downhill and took the two corners before the hill at a fast, but still pretty safe speed. I put about 5 seconds into them right there and didn't get caught before the top. This was with 2 laps to go. Then I just kept riding, keeping my speed up through the turns and ended up finishing the race 7 seconds in front of the peleton.

These guys don't have a hope racing crits in the US since they corner that slow. I don't think I should be able to ride away from the field with 2 laps to go, but I'll take it. Even if it was just for 13th place.

I'll post some pictures if I find them.

Tour of Liege

Sorry for the recent lack of blog posts. I have been feeling rather unmotivated to write.

Its hard to sum up a stage race in a few words, but I will do it anyway...
First stage: attacked half way though with 1 other rider, got caught by a group of 12 stayed away to the finish, got last in the sprint (12th) but ended up with KOM jersey
Second stage: Didn't make the split in the crosswind to a group of 15, chased all day, ended up finishing 36 seconds down, lost KOM jersey because I couldn't sprint well enough at the top of climbs
Third stage: Rode like a complete idiot, and missed several chances at making the front group, including the obvious split up the Mur de Huy (1300m long 9.6% average with 800 meters at 16% average), started the Mur at the back of the group and couldn't ride up it fast enough to catch the lead group. Lost 2.5 min
Forth stage: felt good, but race got cancelled with 40km to go when an tragic accident killed a spectator, the trailer off of the broom wagon fell off and hit him
Fifth stage: hot day, felt kind of crappy, suffered like dog for the last 50 km trying to stay with the yellow jersey group of about 10, made it to the finish, only to find out that 15 riders had gone up the road early with 2.5 minutes of the peleton

Overall it was kind of a mixed bag. I blew the third day pretty bad, and my GC hopes with it, but at least I had a day on the podium.

Leesville and Davis Crit

Last Friday I raced Leesville Road Race, this is one of my favorite courses in NorCal. It was a bit of a strange start since I went early in a break of about 7 riders without really attacking that much. Maybe its just the difference between racing styles in the US and in Europe. I'm used to having to do a ton of accelerations before any move goes, here I followed maybe two attacks, took a couple of pulls in some groups, and suddenly we were off the front. Once we hit the rough roads 30 minutes into the race, our little group stopped working all that smoothly, but I think it was because a few of the guys were on the limit. It meant that we started getting caught by a chase group leading up to the first climb which was about 30km into the race. I didn't want to get caught before the climb and have to think about attacking again, so I took a few good pulls to make sure we stayed away until the bottom.

Once the climb started I just rode a hard tempo and ended up off the front by myself. I saw Jesse and Vince Owens chasing me from the remenants of the break but I kept going and was holding them at 15 or 20 seconds. About half way up I looked back again and saw Jesse by himself trying to come across still 15 seconds behind me. Not wanting to ride the whole race by myself I eased up just a hair so that Jesse could catch up, but I made him work to do it. I pulled him to the top of the climb and down the descent, but soon after we started working really well together and we would stay away until the finish. Given the really flat run in, I knew it was going to be a challenge dropping Jesse, so after a few short lived attacks, I concolled myself to try and sprint it out. Knowing that Jesse is the better sprinter I made sure to get behind him coming up to the line. I was trying to keep a small gap to him in front so that I could have some draft to accelerate into, and coming up to the 200m to go sign Jesse stopped pedaling briefly and I took that as my cue to jump him. I got a decent gap at first but the line wasn't coming nearly fast enough and he squeaked past me with 30 meters to go. It turns out that Velo Promo had put the 200m to go sign about 400 meters before the finish line, but with the road being so straight and flat I had a really hard time judging the actual distance to the line, and gave Jesse plenty of time to come around me. I was pretty disappointed to have messed up the sprint like that, but it was still a fun race.

Not much to say about Davis Crit, I attacked a bit during the race, but the breaks I got into never really wanted to work well to keep the gap so we would always come back after a few laps. The race slowed down in the last 3 laps as individuals battled for position as there was no team willing to take control of the race and do a lead out. I wasn't super comfortable trowing elbows while going six wide through the turns so I didn't manage to move up to the front in time and finished 18th. As such I got my entry fee back in prize money, which is more than I can say for my second place from Leesville. Atleast the Leesville tee-shirt was pretty good this year.