Grant's Tomb Criterium 2015

The worse I place in a crit, the more fun I have

Race report from Kathryn C.:

I ended up racing in the 3/4 field today because of the course. The cat 4s race on a modified course which essentially has no turns...boring! I just couldn't bring myself to sign up for it.

I'm not sure if I was just trying to find an excuse to animate, but after a quick assessment of the field, I thought I would be in trouble in a field sprint and decided I was going into attack mode. I pretty much spent the whole race trying to escape off the front and covering all moves. I actually think if I could've gotten one or two girls to go with me, we may have had a shot at staying away, but nothing seemed to stick. With it being the first race of the season, I don't think anyone really had the confidence to fully commit to an attack.

With about two to go I tried to play it a bit more conservatively, but wheels were getting sketchy in the wet conditions and teams were lining up. I was probably a little too cautious going into the final turn (a long sweeping 180) and didn't have a great spot to start the long sprint. While my legs felt great, I just didn't seem to have it together for the sprint. It's a pretty long finishing chute and I should've trusted my instincts to hold off a little longer to really push it, especially because I don't have a lot of top end at this time of year. I finished 10th beating a whopping two girls in the final sprint - we must have had some fall off the back beforehand.

All in all, I'm really happy with how I felt for this time of year. I felt strong on the climbs and recovered quickly when covering attacks, I just didn't have the positioning or pop for a good sprint. I must admit, I had way more fun than I did when I won last year and I got a great workout. It seems that the more foolish my tactics, the more fun I have! I actually feel like I have an ok grasp on tactics, I just tend to say screw it and take to the front. It's probably a good thing cross is my focus...

Thanks for all of the help you've been giving - I think we are definitely on the right track!

I hope your weekend if off to a great start!

Kathryn

PS - you know you're doing too much work when the winner thanks you after the race for covering everything.