Durango Squawker 2012 Crit Race Report

This weekend was jammed pack with road cycling fun. The Fort Lewis Cycling team organizes an event called the 'Squawker Road Classic'. It attracts many collegiate teams and USAC cycling racers (I fit in this later category)

The Squawker consists of a Saturday morning Time Trial, an afternoon Crit, then a Sunday Road Race.  I signed up for the entire package!

I performed decently in the Time Trial in the morning but was more nervous for the afternoon Crit.




This race report discusses my crit experience! The crit was a 40 minute effort consisting of 25'ish Cat 4/5 racers (Don't let this lower cat deceive you of the abilities, many of the racers are the finest Durango Crit racers, and it weighed on my mind!)

(Click on any of the images for original size!)

The course was fairly flat except for a steeper 20 second climb on the backside. Each lap was approximately 1 minute and 40 seconds. My strategy, stay with the pack and draft. I felt some fatigue from the morning Time Trial.


Here is a decent video of the course; the video is of this years collegiate racers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa5ZgJm_7cE&feature=youtu.be

Like most Crits, the first part was 'balls-to-the-wall' to destroy the competition and it did.  I was able to keep on the pack's wheel for the first 15 minutes and then felt my self 'blowing-up'...

Here I am in the back of the pack trying to hold the pack's wheel...

Soon, I found myself getting dropped.  Thoughts of, "Just pull out next lap and tell Rebecca you blew-up", "Lots of riders from the prior Crit pulled out stating these words, why cant I".  While this weekend is still 'training' where I have the opportunity to hold hard race-paces, I quickly changed the above possible outcomes and decided I wasn't willing to accept defeat.

I ended up with a small group of 6 riders who were also dropped.  I had to figure out how I could catch up!  I realized two things needed to occur. First, I was in too big of a gear on the climb and it destroyed my legs for the downhill and flats.  I resolved this by reducing the gear even further than before and increased the cadence on the climb; I noticed a huge difference (only if I figured this out earlier, I may have been with the pack). Second, the new group I was with needed to work together.

The small group.

After suggesting to the group a 'plan', it was not well received by all. I spoke with the guys after the race and most admitted they were already throttled while drafting off the wheels in this group. I felt I still had strength and decided to start pulling.  The group shrunk to 3 of us, and these guys were willing to rotate till the end.

The final 3, I am in the middle.

Realizing, we were not going to catch the pack with 5 laps remaining, I decided to still 'race' these guys.

My strategy, with two laps remaining, attack the hill climb and hopefully pull away for the last lap.  While this dropped the 3rd rider, the remaining rider drafted off me and counter-attacked me on the final laps climb, I couldn't hold the pace and he pulled away.  I still sprinted to the end and was smiling from ear-to-ear!!

Barely able to breath and almost puking, I finished the Crit!

Thank you Rebecca for the cheering support and photography!!

Now to hydrate and get ready for tomorrow's road race.