Wrona Racing: Race Report: Downtown Sanford Crit

Yesterday I did the Downtown Sanford crit. Last year I did this race, too, and got 25th in the 4/5 race. This year, however, my goal was to be competitive in the 4/5 and 3/4 races, held back to back.

Extremely hot temperatures in the 90's made for hard racing, but nonetheless there were about 50 people in the cat. 4/5 race. The race started good, and I didn't start getting that hot until 10 minutes in, when the 2 water bottles I poured over myself prerace evaporated.

Early in the race I attacked, but I wasn't feeling strong enough to get much of a gap and stayed away for only1/2 a lap. The heat seemed to really prevent me from getting away, and also impaired my ability to recover after my effort.

The race was fast after that, 24.9 avg. mph. with a decent hill, and I was in a bad position for a couple of laps after my attack. I rounded the last corner in a much worse position than I had hoped for, sprinted for the line and got 11th.

After that I went to rollout, rode 2 laps and lined up for the start of the 3/4 race. I had some grapes, a gu, and got two fresh bottles for the race, one to drink and one to pour on my head.

I was hoping that the race would start easily, but then the announcer said, before the race even started, "Preme on the next lap!", so I just tried to hang on. But I was feeling a lot better than I expected, although still not good enough to go with a large breakaway that got away somewhere around lap 3.

I was moving to the front when somone on the other side of the pack made an attempt to bridge up to the leaders. I got right onto their wheel without much difficulty, and we caught the breakaway. Unfortunately, so did the rest of the pack, but at least I was now in a good position.

After that I just fought to stay near the front. There were so many attacks and breaks during the race I couldn't keep track of them all, but somehow the 3/4's was almost easier; faster but smoother.

With a lap to go I was in a good position, I think 6th in the pack. After that I did a bad job of anticipating surges and holding my position, but I think now I have isolated that as my main weakness and will try to improve on it. Going into the last corner, I was definitely in the top 13, and then sprinted and got 12th out of almost 50 riders, which I was pretty happy about.

All in all, I was happy with how I recovered for the 3/4 race, how I was in a good position during most of the race, and that I learned how I can improve. I got a 25 dollar gift card too, for being the 3rd best cat. 4 in the race. Congratulations all my teamates, especially to Barney Baxter and Kirk Port in the Masters Tour De Moore Race on Saturday, and also to Terry Huss in the Pro 1/2 race Yesterday. Nice job to Mike Raynor, 2nd and Craig Stewart, 3rd, in the 15-18 race.

During the 40 minute long cat. 4/5 race, I averaged 24.9mph., and then 25.8 for the 3/4's.

Here's some photos from the Downtown Sanford crit...