[Race Report] Wheels of Thunder Criterium

A quick and dirty race report:

I did my first criterium bike race today. For those of you who don't know, that involves lots of cyclists doing lots of laps around a rather small course (usually between 1-2 miles long, but it varies).

I chose to do this race because it is not too technical - the corners are pretty round and there are only three, and it is a women's mentoring race, which means a group of seasoned riders ran us through the course before the race to give us an overview.

During the mentoring lap, I couldn't hear a whole lot, but at least I got the gist of what lines to follow and where to avoid different bumps/holes on the course. It also gave me the opportunity to remember what it meant to ride nice and tight in a group as well as a try at starting before the actual start.

Through the first lap, I wasn't having a hard time. I managed to stay with the group. I was glad to find the corners and the start were not as bad as I imagined in my head. We weren't taking it too hard and we just sort of coasted through it.

As we came around through the first lap, I was coming towards the back but not too bad. There were still a number of girls behind me. All of a sudden, the two girls in front of me bumped into each other, the one on the right bumped into the one next to her and before I knew it...everyone was crashing. The two in front of me went down and I didn't know whether to stop, but after a moment of hesitation and seeing they were both down, I biked between them and sprinted up to the group.

That sprint took the wind out of me. Coming off a head cold, I could feel burning in my chest and labored breathing. Still, I really wanted to catch these girls before we hit the corner that took us into an uphill, so I did. I was huffing and puffing in the uphill trying to recover. I just sat on the group, telling myself to breathe to recover.

We made it through the second lap and as we were coming through, they slowed us and pushed us to the left into a single file line because they were not yet finished clearing some of the girls who had gone down. I felt really bad still racing knowing that someone had likely broken an ankle. Stringing us out like that really made for an interesting race because it meant we had to...get back together. Again, we were headed to the corner into the uphill, so I put in a little effort to hold on to the pack, and I did. Still, wheezing a little.

As we started into the last straight of the third lap, this was our first prime (pronounced "preem," meaning a lap in which if you finish first you get something) for $20 and a hat. The front group started to sprint up the hill. Some for the prime, some just to not lose the front of the group. As I was still wheezing, I didn't have it in me and the group lost me. Before I knew it, I was dropped.

I tried my hardest to push and catch them through the next lap. I could see the group the whole way, but that uphill was so much harder on my own. As we came down the back stretch, I lost them and I knew there was no hope of catching them, so I did the last two laps on my own.

catching up to some girls after I got dropped to hang out on the last lap

I came off the bike, worried about the girls who crashed, but happy to be done because I'd gone so hard that my chest hurt. I was coughing hard for a while afterwards.

All in all - I'd call it a success. I didn't crash. I know I can hang with these girls. I do blame getting over my cold. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be AND my legs don't hurt so I know I have more strength. It was also really awesome to have a nice group there spectating and cheering for me. I rarely have anyone at my races there just for me, so that was super cool - especially since it was my first (non time trial) bike race.

Until next time...