Today’s Cat 4 race was a sketchy crash-fest. Considering that it was on an auto/motorcycle speedway with perfect pavement and wide-open turns, this was completely unnecessary. It was almost like racing in a field of new Cat 5s.
Kev, Hammer and I carpooled over to South Beloit, and after getting our numbers we set up the trainers out of the wind. I start overheating during the warm-up, so I ditch the wind vest and opt to ride with just a jersey, a long-sleeve jersey, shorts, and knee warmers. After about 30 minutes of warm up we tear down the trainers and head over to the start/finish.
Once we were allowed onto the court, Kev rolls off to do a full warm-up lap, while Hammer and I opted to take a ½ lap. We then rolled to the line with 68 other riders. I had good position in the 2nd line. When the whistle blew we took off at a pretty brisk, but manageable, pace.
I could tell from the very first lap that this field was going to be trouble. Too many guys would make moves without looking, there was a lot of bumping, and there was way too much braking and slowing. As I mentioned, there are no tight turns and the roadway is wide open. Every corner could be pedaled through and taken at speed, so why we kept hitting the brakes was a mystery. This race was also a bit odd in that there were never really any attacks. There were plenty of surges, but no breakaways.
Sketchiness aside, the first few laps passed relatively uneventfully. At one point I heard Hammer announce that he was on my wheel. At about 8 minutes in, I heard metal hitting pavement somewhere behind me and to my left. Considering how the field had been riding, I knew that it was just a matter of time. I don’t know how many riders went down. When a crash happens behind you, you treat it like it never happened...you don’t look back; you just hope that none of your mates were involved and keep going. More often than not, those riders not involved in the crash take this opportunity to hit the gas and you don’t want to miss the surge.
At 12 minutes in, I was still feeling really good but was farther back in the field than I wanted to be. Hoping that the front would be safer, I decided to expose myself to the wind, and moved up the outside of the left side of the field to get away from all the squirrelyness. I inserted myself back into the field somewhere within the top 20, and stayed there for pretty much the rest of the race.
Throughout the race, my legs and lungs felt really good, and my heart rate was well under control. As mentioned, there were a lot of surges, especially going into the start/finish. We would top out at over 30 mph on that stretch, while averaging around 25 or so on the rest of the course. I was easily able to hang with these surges, and never once feared that I was going to blow up.
On the backstretch with 3 laps to go, there was a huge crash right in the middle of the field. It happened in front of me, but fortunately I was far enough to the left that I could get by without slowing down very much. I hit the gas and bridged up to the 20 or so other riders who had avoided the crash. At this point, I was mentally out of the race. All I wanted to do was to stay upright and finish. I knew that this wouldn’t be as easy. With 2 laps to go, a xXx rider made some really bizarre moves. He twitched to the right, all the way to the edge of the road, cutting across 3 riders. Then he twitched right again, out into the grass, and then twitched back onto the road…for no apparent reason whatsoever.
The paced turned blistering as we zipped past the start/finish for the bell lap. I was still feeling good, and still sitting in the top 20. I fought my way up the left side to gain some more position. Shortly after turn 2, however, there was yet another crash. Again, I stayed out of the way of the carnage, but unfortunately this crash sent Hammer out into the grass, and he had to come to a dead stop before rolling again. I fought to maintain whatever position I could, but was still eclipsed by some riders.
As we came around the final turn, I started to think that I was home free. I knew that there were too many riders in front of me, and that I would end up with a mediocre finish. Still, I started to mash on the pedals just to take whatever I could. And just as I was getting up to full speed, there is another crash. I see a rider sliding on the pavement right in front of me. I dived to the right, but now there was a most curious sight in front of me…a rider who was still upright and still had enough momentum to be moving forward, but whose rear wheel was completely tacoed. I could even smell the burning rubber as I dived right around him and fought my way to the line. Guys were sitting up all around me, but I kept sprinting the whole way and ended up taking 25th out of 58 finishers.
My biggest problem during the race was getting position. Had the field been riding safely, I would have taken a lot more chances to move up into open gaps. There were so many times when I would see a gap, but right next to that gap would be a rider who I had seen twitching around. I simply didn’t want to take the risk of moving forward only to have the squirrel decide to twitch over into that space that I had hoped to occupy. Perhaps I just need to be more fearless. There is still a long season ahead of me to work on that.
I had no idea there were that many crashes. I ran up front all day, to a fault actually. I knew of the two on the last lap
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