Race the Ridge crit

Share your ride and race stories, stats, and fabrications here!

Moderator:vicwheelers

Nick
Posts:14
Joined:Thu Mar 16, 2017 8:47 am
Your Ride:Tactic
Favourite Ride Style:Road
Race the Ridge crit

Post by Nick » Mon May 01, 2017 9:02 am

After a heavily stacked Saturday (hilly road race, uphill TT), the crit was looking a little daunting Sunday afternoon. A dead flat course, with a couple hairy corners was sure to present some high speed racing and some questionable/treacherous moves. Having seasoned vet Isaac there as support was super nice, providing insight on how to take the best line on a course he won on just last year. Right from the get go it was evident this wasn't going to be like a VCL crit (more bodies, more speed, more overall hecticness). I had a poor start position and ended up at the back of the group for the first few laps as I tried to figure out the best way to move through the pack. I could see ARuss up the road with "Norco" written on his rear-end acting as a beacon of light for which I could focus on while the craziness settled a bit. The pace settled to a cool 43 km/h for a few laps before I got a little excited as a Langlois guy flew off the front. I told myself before the race that I had nothing to lose and I'd go for a break if something happened, so I jumped on the chance to get ahead, with a Red Truck and Smart Savvy guy in tow. It was apparent that there wasn't much urgency to organize so it looked like this break wouldn't stick, but it did give me the chance to get out of the craziness at the back of the peloton. I drifted back to midpack to catch a breather and to take note of where everyone was, seeing ARuss and Jackson still in the mix. Unfortunately, it looked like Duncan's cold had gotten the best of him, leaving 3 of us in the race. The 3 laps to go sign came up sooner than I would have thought, and got me antsy to get back up to the front. I went wide on the penultimate lap and slotted myself behind ARuss, maybe 9th wheel. I gave ARuss a shout to let him know my presence and it was game on. The 180 degree turn meant that those out front got a jumpstart to the finish line. I ended up slingshotting by ARuss and threw my bike across the line just ahead of Dylan Davies to take 7th in Cat 1/2, taking Cat 3 along the way.

All in all, super fun weekend of racing, with the Wheelers showing depth in all fields we entered. Shout out to Deb for crashing in the crit and still taking the win. Thanks to Isaac for the accommodation and his mom's soups. :mrgreen:

Post Reply