Team Dayton/Renaissance Park Criterium

Fun course--not too technical outside of the one off-camber with the rippled pavement, and we were all tame going through that. We didn't have the field size that caused problems in the earlier races. I expected more attacks, but there weren't many. I did one early, going up the small hill, but it was covered immediately and I eased up. The primes drove the pace up more than anything. Though I didn't want the primes, I grabbed a wheel and followed after. I was sure that on one of them, the break would stick. Nope, there were 9 of us coming to the finish together. The sprint started a bit before the final uphill, and I wasn't where I wanted to be despite having spent a good bit of time up front. JoMay's was the wheel I caught, and then launched myself from there and up the hill. Mary Downing was the only one in front of me by the time we crested, but I didn't have enough room to catch her. I'm pleased anyway--my sprint was there when I asked my legs to respond.

Thanks to JoMay, Brooke, and Amy for helping me out during the race. During the race, JoMay tried to give me a few pointers; and post-race, I learned that both she and Brooke had thrown in blocks where they could, and in fact blocked for me when I was doing my final charge up the hill. Thanks!

Oh, yeah, great job to all our juniors who raced today. Way to go!

After sporadically training this season, spending several hectic days at the juniors camp, and not getting enough to drink or eat at breakfast, I had not intended on racing on Saturday. In fact, I was still considering bagging the race even during the warm-up because I felt light-headed and queasy, but Julie did a good job distracting me by draping wet paper towels over my head. However, after seeing what some of the kids endured with their multiple bumps and bruises from camp and seeing that they all showed up to race, having Brooke continually bug me, and seeing Amy show up for her first race of the year, I thought I'd better at least try.

My placing was the same as last year, but I felt better about the results than those of previous races. We decided up front to help Shari, so everyone knew what was expected. I also knew some of the other riders and was familiar with the course, so I felt comfortable enough to monitor what was going in the front and the rear during the race. Brooke and I did our best to block for Shari, and in fact, for a brief moment towards the end of the race, we had ideal positioning with Shari up front with one Dayton rider, and Brooke and I right behind them. Too bad we didn't take advantage of it. Perhaps next time we need to blatantly yell instructions the way Jim Matson and Alan Martin did from the sidelines.

Finally, our juniors deserve praise for their participation in the camp and their efforts at the race. They did a great job representing the team. For many of them, it was their very first bike race. Also, special thanks go to Julie, Chris and Ryan for providing support at the race and to the Westerville Bicycle Club for allowing us to borrow the canopies and water jugs. It would have been a much longer day without food, shelter and moral support.

It has always been hot and sunny at the Renaissance Park Crit. This year it was no different.

I started the race out attacking and wore myself out. The break went while I was trying to recover. We made time on the break when we worked steady. Unfortunately, the momentum was broken by several riders who found themselves on the front and were willing to let someone else work.

I was feeling pretty good before the sprint and was ready to pounce on the short hill before the finish. I pushed hard going into the base of the hill and was quickly arrested as another rider moved over an just about put his rear derailer through my spokes. I leaned the bike over to protect and finished off the sprint for 6th.

Aside from the many crashes, this was a routine race with virtually no attacks - just a steady tempo around the wide open course. My goal was to stay in the top 5-8 places waiting for the right moment to jump before one lap to go. With all the crashes, my strategy turned out to be a wise one and I jumped just before the last turn going into the final lap. I got a nice gap and took a $20 prime and almost held off the pack to win, but ran out of gas and got swarmed with about 50m to the finish. All-in-all it was a good race. I was able to fulfill on my race strategy to perfection - just didn't have quite enough juice in the end. One of these days, I will.

No stream left just after doing the Cat 3 race.

I just plain suffered. I had all the classic signs of overheating (hyperthermia)?- goose bumps during the race, chills afterwards and one bad headache in the evening. I had enough to drink- I think. I don’t like to quit races- but this race I probably should have!

The 40+ race went about as I suspected based on the large number of Dayton riders. There were attacks with nothing sticking until a couple riders got a gap: a Dayton rider and another strong guy. We chased, but with 3 laps to go we were running out of time, and I was worried about a strong Dayton rider lurking in our group. So when I had the opportunity to have a go alone, I bridged up to the break. As I arrived, the break died. And as expected, when the other chasers caught us, the fresh Dayton guy, a UDF, and a Unizan, took off. I was too gassed to respond when a CycleDot came through. I wasn’t expecting much, but he rescued us by pulling us all the way up to the break by himself (yahoo!).

So what did I do given new life and the chance to sprint for the race? I started the sprint in 4th and finished in 4th. Oh, well...

Unfortunately, with Dayton having big numbers again, the cat 3 race went exactly as I would NOT have liked it to go. After covering one of the early moves I got shuffled to the middle of the field. Meanwhile, a break went and I couldn’t recover or get into position fast enough to react.

We tried to chase, but other than SHC, few were willing to work. It didn’t help that a couple Dayton riders were trying to shoulder their way into the chasing paceline in an effort to disrupt and slow things. I must say that I think that is a bush-league tactic. Taking first wheel on any chaser as the break is forming and sitting up at the front are accepted (and encouraged) ways of racing. But when the break is well established and the chase is organizing, trying to physically knock riders out of the rotation and slow the chase is amateurish (and can escalate into dangerous). Fortunately (or unfortunately) it made little difference in the race since the break was gone by a long ways.

One last note: it was great to see so many SHC jerseys on hand. It almost felt like a “home” race. And it was great to see so many juniors out there giving it their best!

What can I say, it was a crash fest. Where to begin, ahh Jeff Y. and I took an extra practice lap then we were supposed to so we ended up starting from the back. We were slowly working our way though the field. About 15 minutes into the race 2 guys went off into the grass before turn 3 which set the nervousness in motion.

The next lap another rider flats going into turn 1 sliding across the road taking out 1 more. We had enough time to react but I lost my balance on the 6 inches of pavement I had to work with. Did a little Cyclocross action. Unfortunately my angle to get back on the road was too shallow so I ended up having to stop after 3 attempts and get on the road. By this time Jeff Y. (who also did some cyclocross) was just up the road. After a lap of chasing and a lap of yelling up to him I finally got his attention and we worked together the rest of the race. A lap after we started working another crash happened just outside of turn 3.

In the end we didn't get lapped (close though). Joe, sorry we were working our way up to help you out. Most importantly my streak of not finishing a crit with the pack stays alive for 1 more race.

"I feel accomplished." Thanks to Josh and Jacob for the teamwork.

This race was downright scary. We had at least 4 crashes. Ignoring the crashes, there wasn't too much else going on. Pretty much a constant churn on the front, no attempts to get away. I started on the back and gradually worked my way up front and did pull for part of a lap. On the second to the last lap I finally got on Joe's tail so we would be in a position to do something at the end. Then he cuts between two riders and takes off a few seconds later and it's like 'Hey! wait for me.' He pulls a good gap on the field up the hill and I think maybe I could bridge up past the finish line. Well 200 yards later it dawns on me that all I was doing was pulling the field so i backed off. So now it was down to the sharp turn and I'm just sitting in the lead bunch hoping to last to till the field sprint. I'd watched at least 2 people go down on that thing and it looked like so much fun that I decided to try it myself. Somehow I didn't crash but by the time I'd gotten back on the pavement and got my change back on I was finishing with the stragglers.

Ugh.....

It was a good race for me i had raced 1 and a quarter races befor that and i was wiped and got droped of the (womens) group once put a lot of efort to get back then i got droped a second time a bigger gap this time got back up and finished, helped jomay block for sheri and sheri got up the hill with three women with her so it was good and i beat 3 girls (or should i say women) in the sprint so i have no complaints i am happy. Yip Yip E i finished with the group for once that day soi will not bore yo with the other races. Sheri your a beast and stop pulling every one around you will kill them and your self your too strong. Thanks Jomay for every thing this weekend and amy thanks for comeing and raceing with me!!

First race... The first 6 laps were enough to have me quit. The pace was too much for me to handle for 35 minutes. Every time I looked at my computer the speed was between 25 and 31 mph.