The weekly criterium series started at the Washington Blvd. Oval last Tuesday. Due to crappy weather/work, I didn’t make it. This Tuesday, the weather wasn’t much better, but i decided that I need to get my first race of the season over with.Normally, I would ride to the oval, but my new computer arrived on Tuesday, a Dell Mini 9 (which i’m typing on now.) I spent most of the day hacking it to run OS X, needless to say I didn’t get much work done. Turned out to be a pretty cool fully functioning mini mac! For anyone who is interested, check out www.mydellmini.com for a TON of information on how to get OS X up and running.

Anyways, due to my new toy, i had quite a bit of extra baggage with me, so i called Jon, who had his work van to see if he was going to the race. I convinced him that he should go, despite the weather and i met up with him in the Strip district to get a ride out to the oval. For whatever reason, Im never very enthusiastic about going to race on Tuesdays. That usually changes by the time i get to the track, and definitely changes by the time the race is over. I guess it’s just nerves.

Of course, as soon as Jon and I arrived the clouds rolled in and greeted us with a downpour. I had been looking at the weather throughout the afternoon and was fairly confident that the rain would pass. The temperature had already dropped a few degrees since the afternoon down into the mid 40’s. I decided to sit in the fan while the storm passed to stay warm before the race. Once the rain ended i headed out in time to see the women start their race. The rain didn’t seem to be much of a deterrent as there was a pretty good field already signed in for the men’s race. I had signed up for a season pass earlier at work, which was being payed for through my “flex-fund” program, so i got to save my $10. That worked out well considering how the race played out. This year in the C races, there are a few new rules. The main change is the addition of five neutral laps at the beginning of the race to allow newer riders to get a feel for the close quarters of the field. I can see how this will also help people get into their pedals before the pace gets too high. Similar to last year, the races earlier in the season are relatively short at 32 laps (27 plus the 5 neutral).

I wasn’t exactly sure how i was going to feel once things got going. I’ve only ridden about 100 road miles since the beginning of the year. I suspected the pace would be pretty fast thanks to a few key players that, in addition to having a lot more miles on the year than I do, have already competed in a few races. As we rolled out for the neutral laps things felt pretty normal. The field had plenty of familiar faces, and the now slightly wet track, hadn’t changed at all. The marshals led us out at a steady pace of around 20 mph for the five laps before any attacks could start. And start they did with the onset of the race. Despite the pace climbing quickly, the speed felt reasonable. In fact, i was rather startled to look behind me after about 5 or 6 laps to see that the closest rider was at least 25 yards away. After about 10 laps i knew that i wouldn’t be able to hold onto the back of the lead group for long. I’d thought by then that a few other riders had caught back on and might be able to offer some help in the chase. Unfortunately, as is all to often the case, cooperation/coordiation of efforts was at a minimum. I did get a little help for about half of the race, but consisted mostly of new faces that didn’t quite get the idea of taking short pulls to conserve efforts. The field finally came around to lap the remainder of the now shattered field with around 15 laps to go. Again, i couldn’t seem to hold onto the back of that group due to my mainly solo efforts up to that point. Needless to say, with a group of about 10 in the lead break, i was destined to finish one lap down, somewhere in the middle of the field.

Considering my lack of training time, and my familiar pre-race lack of enthusiasm, I thought i had a pretty good race. My speed stayed consistent throughout the race and i didn’t feel like i had blown up at any point. After the race, as is the norm, I felt a sense of excitement to be getting back into racing this year. Hopefully, with a bit more dedication to training I’ll be right up there in the lead group in a few weeks time. Who knows, maybe i’ll even win one this year.