Fall River Crit 2010

Since I am planning to do as much cyclo-cross racing as possible this fall, I have been trying to ramp up my high intensity training. As a natural means to an end, crit racing seemed to be a perfect fit to help intensify my somewhat lax training program. While I was searching for local events, I found the ‘Blount Fine Foods Fall River Criterium’ on the New England schedule. Since it was just over an hour away, I decided to give it a try.

Cat 5s were racing when I arrived and I noticed major pain on the faces of the riders which was being inflicted by a small hill after the finish line. I only had an hour until the start time for my race, so I registered and headed out for a warm-up ride. When I rode over to turn #4, I noticed a hill that made me loose a bit of confidence. The climb between turn #3 and turn #4 was about 400 meters long and about a 5% or 6% grade. I am not a great climber, so I quickly began to envision myself hanging onto the back of the group…which is exactly what happened.

I lined up in a good start position, and felt ready to go, but had issues getting into my left pedal, and my good position all of a sudden was converted into a position in the back of the field. It didn't really matter because after about 6 or 7 laps, the lactic acid in my legs was overtaking my muscle output, and I could no longer hold the 22-24mph pace up the climb. I rode on, still at a vigorous pace, and tried to keep the group in sight for a while. Then I worked to catch other riders who were dropped. I tried to stay low and aero down the finish straight since there was a headwind that was killing my speed. I worked super hard solo, and after catching up to the fourth dropped rider, I was pulled from the course by the officials since there were only 5 laps to go.

It was a bummer to get dropped, and even more of a bummer to get pulled from the race, but at least the experience provided me an indication about where my level of fitness stands compared with other Cat 4 racers. With my 40 out of 43 finish, I decided that I have a lot of work to do before the commencement of ‘cross season.

Read more about the course here, and read how my friend SOC made it to a podium spot.

Joe Tindal

Expo Wheelmen - Cat 4