Tour de Delta Criterium
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:23 pm
Yesterday I raced in the Tour de Delta Cat 3/4 criterium, held in Ladner village. I ran into Tom and Jamie from Pro City and Alex from Russ Hays on the ferry and the four of us plus Jamie's partner biked into Ladner together.
The course was a one kilometer, rectangular-shaped loop. The finish line was about 210 metres from the final corner, which was really nice since that corner was pretty tight with a chicane and choppy pavement. There were about 45 people in the field.
The race started out fast and I spent most of my time near the middle of the pack. About 15 riders got pulled, and there seemed to be several people who kept falling off the back of the main group. No one was able to make a clean break from the main bunch, but I understand there was a decent headwind that made it difficult.
I had three goals for the race: finish in the top ten for cat 4, stay with the main group and don't crash. I'm happy to report I achieved all of these, finishing in third place among the cat 4s and 16th overall. I had about the same placement in Bastion Square, but that was a cat 4/citizen race so I feel I've made some progress.
I was especially happy with my sprint at the end; normally this is a weak area for me and I was expecting the worst after a lacklustre last lap where I didn't get close enough to the front. However, coming out of the final corner I unleashed a large amount of power on the other fellows (I almost scared myself) and passed a bunch of them.
I think my biggest obstacle in criteriums is feeling timid and wary of crashing. While I was racing I knew I could physically go harder and get closer to the front, but my brain was not too keen on it. I'm hoping this will change with further experience in criteriums and with some of Lister's great cornering practice.
A big congratulations go to Jamie Cameron from Pro City for snagging first among the cat 4s and 12th overall.
Results here: http://www.tourdedelta.com/crit_men34_10.htm
The course was a one kilometer, rectangular-shaped loop. The finish line was about 210 metres from the final corner, which was really nice since that corner was pretty tight with a chicane and choppy pavement. There were about 45 people in the field.
The race started out fast and I spent most of my time near the middle of the pack. About 15 riders got pulled, and there seemed to be several people who kept falling off the back of the main group. No one was able to make a clean break from the main bunch, but I understand there was a decent headwind that made it difficult.
I had three goals for the race: finish in the top ten for cat 4, stay with the main group and don't crash. I'm happy to report I achieved all of these, finishing in third place among the cat 4s and 16th overall. I had about the same placement in Bastion Square, but that was a cat 4/citizen race so I feel I've made some progress.
I was especially happy with my sprint at the end; normally this is a weak area for me and I was expecting the worst after a lacklustre last lap where I didn't get close enough to the front. However, coming out of the final corner I unleashed a large amount of power on the other fellows (I almost scared myself) and passed a bunch of them.
I think my biggest obstacle in criteriums is feeling timid and wary of crashing. While I was racing I knew I could physically go harder and get closer to the front, but my brain was not too keen on it. I'm hoping this will change with further experience in criteriums and with some of Lister's great cornering practice.
A big congratulations go to Jamie Cameron from Pro City for snagging first among the cat 4s and 12th overall.
Results here: http://www.tourdedelta.com/crit_men34_10.htm