Tonight was the Tour of Eagle (aka, Eagle Criterium). Even though it’s no longer a stage race, the old “Tour” name has stuck from the original incarnation. The criterium kicks off the Eagle Fun Days weekend so there are always lots of spectators. Many of my friends and neighbors were out cheering for me.
I decided to race my (heavy) training bike since the course is totally flat and I wouldn’t care if I crashed it (always likely in a crit). The other benefit is it has my PowerTap so I could analyze the ride afterwards.
The nice thing about racing in downtown Eagle is that I’m able to warm up at my house and then just ride down the hill to the race. The temperature was perfect for racing and my legs felt decent during warm-up. The race started and I went hard from the gun and found myself on the wheel of Justin R. It was a fast pace, especially for me who usually takes 10–20 minutes before my body gets used to race pace and I feel comfortable (even after a warm-up).
On a four corner course like this I pretty much stay on the inside most of the time and confirmed why I use that strategy; three crashes occurred ahead or right in front of me but because I was on the inside I avoided all of them! About half-way through the race I found myself at the front chasing a small break. I heard the announcer say something about a prime when I went by so I kept the pace high and pushed it for a full lap. I made sure no one tried to come around and crossed the line in front.
But rather than hear a confirmation of my “victory”, I heard him announce a second prime! Well, I found out later that the first one was for a chase group! So I stayed at the front for yet another lap and then tried to pick it up as best I could on the start/finish stretch. At this point my legs were cooked. I looked back to see if anyone was going to contest it and I saw someone sprinting to my right. So I stood up and gave it all I had. We were side by side and both threw our bikes at the line. It was so close they had to go to the video to see who won it…and it wasn’t me! Bummer…two super hard efforts with nothing to show for it!
Well, after that I was totally spent and dropped to the back of the pack to catch my breath. When it came down to 10 laps to go, Calvin A was up the road and there were only about 15 of us left in the “main pack” due to all the crashes. With five laps to go there was a really bad crash, the worst of the night, on turn one. There was still carnage on the ground when we came around again. So out of concern for the riders and the fact that a crowd of paramedics and people were blocking part of turn one, the pack decided to neutralize ourselves.
I think most of us thought we would get a re-start, but since Calvin pretty much had it won and the injured rider was still on the ground after the five laps passed, we basically rolled through the finish without much fanfare. Later I came to find out that I got 3rd, and even won some cash. But due to the neutralized nature of the finish, I felt guilty about accepting the money so I made a donation to the Idaho Velodrome & Cycling Park.
Overall, I was happy with my performance as it was my first criterium in almost a year and I haven’t done any Anaerobic Work Capacity training this season. Not too bad, but I’ve done harder crits before an So in a way it was a bit of a confidence booster. But missing that prime was a disappointment as this wasn’t the first time I missed one by a tire’s width!
Photos courtesy of UTRider who happened to be in town for the weekend.