Santa Cruz Crit Race Report 50+ 123

With a beautiful weekend on tap and one of the best Crit courses on the calendar on tap today I decided to start my race season at the Santa Cruz Crit. With no racing in my legs - and no Port or practice crits either (thanks to the atmospheric rivers tending to hit on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for some reason) - I didn’t know where my Crit fitness was. My plan was to race smart, conserve energy (and not get overly excited by doomed moves), maintain good position in the bunch and see what I could do in the final laps.The whistle blows and I fumble my clip-in. My new Garmin pedals are a lot spinnier than my old Shimano ones - and it took me a couple stava to get in. By then I was at the back of the bunch. No panic, take the hairpin tight, jump onto a wheel, ride the speed to the next right turn and take that right and flow up the first part of the hill back to the front quarter of the bunch where I wanted to be.I focused i riding my own race, riding on the sheltered side, taking my turns well to drift up when I could by taking my turns a bit better than others - taking them tight and gaining places. I also figured out where there was room to move up more - on both parts of the hill with minimal effort.Lap after lap the hill felt ok - it never hurt too bad - and I always had a bit more to keep going over the top past the finish line to be sure I was in good position for the hairpin.I stayed smooth - all good except for one lap where the guy in front of me dropped his chain - but I was back where I wanted to be within a few corners.With four to go a small group got slightly up the road - but did not seem to be making any headway. Then with two to go Steve Reaney from Cycle Sport (the team formed by the merger of R4R and Cognition) jumps from next to me to go across. I didn’t follow him but instead just made a small effort to get into the top five-eight or so of the main pack. For a minute I regretted not joining him to go across. But the pack immediately chased and I realized I’d made the right decision.We caught the break as we came across the line for bell lap, and everyone slowed down for a moment as the two groups merged - so I made another small effort to keep myself up towards the top five-eight or so and reminded myself that I just needed to take the remaining three corners well - smooth fast and inside - and I’d be in good position for the sprint.At the bottom of the hill I kept up my speed, took it tight, found the open gap on the right going into the first part of the hill, followed a rider who sprinted up it to get into better position, then passed him on the final corner taking it tighter and faster and got myself into fourth wheel.I sat behind my “lead-out” patiently up the hill until the sprint began with 100 meters to go. Then the guy in front of me pulled out of his pedal. So I had to come out into the block headwind to finish my sprint a bit sooner than I wanted.I was dying at the line and noticed two guys sprinting to my left. At the line those two came by. The riders in front of me stayed ahead. But those two were 60+ racers - so while I finished 6th overall in the combined 50+ and 60+ 123 fields I was 4th in the 50+ 123s - good for a t-shirt and burrito money.

Race Report from Hussien S.

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