July 10 - Lafayette Criterium, Lafayette
Race website & results

Race photos: AbbiOrca.com

The start line for the first Lafayette Downtown Criterium All photos © AbbiOrca.com

Women's 3/4 report by Elis Bradshaw

When I first saw the course description for the new-in-2005 Lafayette Criterium I was really excited to see a course that appeared to favor racers with power and good handling skills. With the hairpin corner leading through a quick steep hill into a slightly uphill sprint, I figured that many people would get bunched up in the last corner (hopefully not resulting in a big pile-up crash) and that if I could steer clear of that the sprint could be decided by brute force, not necessarily wiliness. Of course, I didn't even consider the nasty headwind that showed up on the finishing straight, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

The men's Elite 3 field

After burning myself out by June on the collegiate circuit last year by doing back-to-back races most weekends, I had played it more conservatively this year, only doing one race per weekend and for the most part only racing every other weekend. However, with the season in full swing I decided to take a chance this weekend and do both the Coyote Creek and Lafayette criteriums. The whole weekend was going to be a big experiment in humility and recovery, since both crits had hills (which at best aren't my strength and at worst...) and both were combined category 3/4 races so I would be racing against women in a higher category than me. Coyote Creek was fun, hot, and long, and I headed home after the race to put my legs up and eat as much as possible. Sunday morning I woke up feeling pretty fresh but still a little unsure.

Luckily the drive to the race was only 20 minutes, so I didn't have to get ready in the dark and it was already warm by the time I got on the rollers to warm up. Forty hot, sweaty minutes later I got off, deciding to use the last fifteen minutes of my warm-up to suck down more water and try to fight off the dizziness that had hit me at minute 38. I found my boyfriend in the crowd, gave him my water bottle and took a pep talk, then went for a lap and lined up near the front.

At the line the official announced "at least" five primes, which made my stomach do a little flip. Prime laps in the 3/4 combined races I have raced in are fast, and I figured that with the hill before the sprint I might not meet my goal of staying with the front group. Like most, this race started out fast and I stayed as close to the front as I could to avoid the crash I was anticipating on the first couple hairpin turns. Sure enough, in the second or third lap people started yelling "rider down!" as we hit the turn, and I swung wide to miss a girl in the middle of the road who luckily didn't look hurt. That's when the primes started. To try out my sprint I decided to go for the first two primes, which is when I discovered that not only was the finish uphill but there was a nasty headwind that pushed me backward anytime I put my nose in the wind. Up against some seriously powerful women, my best prime was third place on the second sprint, but I did get a feel for the sprint.

AMD Masters' Larry Nolan in the Masters 35+ 1/2/3 race

The middle of the race passed pretty uneventfully except for one of the juniors in the field shoving me out of the way as she tried to move up between the rider to my right and me and take the wheel I was on. Not cool or safe, but thankfully there wasn't a crash. I noticed many girls in the field (including myself) were extra-attentive due to the spectators ringing cowbells near the officials ("was that a prime?" "I don't know, but I heard a bell!" "So did I, but was it the bell?"). I also noticed that though the pack was taking the corners rather tight, by taking a wide line I didn't get bunched up with the rest of them and I was able to pedal sooner because the bank wasn't so steep, so I started taking more sweeping turns and was able to move up a little in the corners each lap to make up for the few places I slipped back on the hill. With eight laps to go, I remembered why crits with short courses are so hard: because even if you're going around a single city block, by the thirtieth lap it feels like you've been riding forever. Add in that headwind, the hills, and the corner that prevented us from getting the advantage over the wind and the hill, and I was really ready for the end! Luckily, the last few laps went really fast because the course was so short (the silver lining).

At three to go the already-high pace increased and I moved up as far as I could to try and get better position for the sprint (my experiment had been successful so far, so why quit while I was ahead?). My wide line in the corner didn't allow me to jump out of the corner the way I'd hoped, but most girls seemed to over-gear for their narrow line through the corner so it didn't seem to hurt me. This was one of the longer sprints I've seen, and the headwind made it seem even longer, but I kept going as fast and as hard as I could trying to reel in the Velo Bella right in front of me. Our bikes were overlapping right before the line when Liz Varner (CycleSports-Trumer Pils) came flying by our left side and threw to beat both of us. When the final results were counted I took eighth place, which is more than I expected or even hoped for. My first top-10 in a combined field! The course definitely suited my strengths and it was really fast and exciting. The community seemed to enjoy it, too, so hopefully we'll see it again next year!

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