21 July 2007

Watsonville Criterium E4

CTL: 127
TSB: 6
Cat 4 race, 15 miles

Had to officiate for the race immediately preceding this one due to a shortage so not much of a warmup but the race felt pretty easy for the most part. Each of the riders who won the Cat 4 and the 35+ 4/5 Coyote Creek races were here so tried to keep an eye on them. The main difficulties on this course are the hill and the wind. The hill is pretty short, it's only about 500 feet from the last corner to the top of the hill where the finish line is, so last corner position pretty much dictates the finish, I thought this was probably not enough to break up our race even on the last lap. There is a 150 degree turn at the bottom of the hill and a 120 degree turn near the wheel pit and three 90 turns going into the start/finish straight hill.

Never felt like I was in difficulty for the entire race. Was able to surf wheels mid pack until we got the three to go card and started moving up. Was sitting about tenth wheel on the last lap and patiently waited for the corner before the finish and was planning on attacking into the corner but there were several riders in front of me that were pretty sketchy and just held off enough that I lost about five positions, then had to choose between sprinting with a draft on the left or leading myself out on the right and went with the right. Was able to pass five people and though I was going to pass a few more but one of the riders died about six feet to my left and suddenly veered all the way to one foot to my right so I had to brake and ended up tenth of forty something. Wish I had worked harder because just sitting in until the final sprint was pretty easy.



T: 40:28
Pavg: 199
Pnorm: 219
C: 98
S: 38.4
Watsonville E4 Criterium

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