The crit was the same course as last year, with a litter riser and right-hand turn at the end of the start/finish stretch. I was hoping they paved that stretch since it was bumpy last year. But during my warm-up laps, I realized they hadn’t, so I let out some air from my tubeless tires, which really helped! For this age group, it was 50 minutes, which was odd as the age brackets below us did 75 minutes and most women’s groups did 60 minutes. Weird!
The crit pretty much stayed together, with small breaks getting away for a half lap here, a lap there. But everything usually came back together. There were ~80 riders and I wasn’t riding as strong in the crit as I hoped, so I was at the back of the strung-out field most of the time. IOW, I didn’t get to see the front very much. 🙁
There were a few crashes mid-pack, which took out some riders. I always try to be on the inside on crits, which helped me avoid them as they all happened in the middle or outside of the field. One of them happened just ahead of me and I just counter-steered and tightened the radius of my turn to avoid it.
With three laps to go, it seemed to slow down, or everyone was getting tired, and I managed to slide up to the front on the right-hand side of the start/finish stretch. I was hoping I could stay up there, but on the wide section on the backside of the course, things swarmed, and then later people were taking risks I didn’t like, so I dropped back a little.
On the last lap, there was yet another crash on turn 2, which I avoided again. This helped me stay in the top half and managed to move up a little in the start/finish stretch, where I sprinted for 33rd. Tad didn’t do the crit…I think I was the only Boise rider in that one.