The 30% chance of showers came true today. Riding over to Sacramento with Jeff and Ashley this morning, it started sprinkling around Fairfield and was out and out raining by the time we hit Davis. It was on again off again at the course, getting the asphalt wet enough to form puddles in places. But it wasn't coming down at start time.
My plan going into the open-course warm-up was to cut it short and secure a good place at the line to get a fast start. I figured that since the 180-degree corner was right after the start, things would get split up pretty quickly if someone went down the first time through the hairpin. And I did get a prime start place in the first row (we were lined up 4 or more deep with 76 starters).
I went right from the whistle and was one of the first 5 into the hairpin. From there I was at or near the front for nearly the entire race. I probably spent more energy than I should in the first half closing gaps that weren't going to decide anything. My least sensible move was on the first prime lap, when the most attacking rider in the race (a BBC rider, Jeff said afterward his name was probably Chris or Keith) got a good gap on the backstretch, and I put in a moderate effort to close it as he was attacking, then ended up on the front and towed the field around for the lap. The gap came down a good bit, but that wasn't going to help me and I couldn't tell if Jeff or Seth were nearby. Didn't accomplish much.
On the flip side, the few times small groups got little gaps on the pack that caused surges that shed riders off the back, I was usually in those groups, so saved the energy of not having to dig deep to get to the front or bridge the gap.
The major crash of the race happened around halfway, in turn 1, which I didn't think was sketchy, but apparently the very inside had irregular pavement features hidden by a water puddle at the apex. Someone slide out on the inside and the crash dominoed right across the field. It started 6 or 7 back, and I was maybe 12 back, so had enough time to see it happening, slow down, and pick my way around bikes and bottles as they were sliding to the outside. I rejoined and the front group hammered from that point knowing that there was going to be a gap. Unfortunately, Jeff got stuck too far behind the crash and couldn't get back on. Seth made it back on.
That was the only crash I saw (I heard there were many others), but my personal scare was when I hit my inside pedal coming out of the hairpin in the later part of the race. I recovered it and kept going, which wasn't too hard given the turn's low speed. I did find the least effort in the hairpin was to take an late apex line then pedal a few times seated before everyone stood up to sprint out of the turn, so I kept working that method, just a bit more carefully. (Only worked when single file or when hogging the middle of the road with guys only to the outside.)
The finale was a simple drag race. I was looking around for the BBC guy. He also took the second prime (I got third) and had put in a good attack with five to go that I followed and worked a bit on, but it came back together. But on the bell lap, I didn't see him. After the hairpin, I followed a strong Stanford guy and got a bit off the front with him, but it was a long way to go and I didn't counter when he slowed up. I looked around for a few seconds, then saw BBC guy attack up the far left with good speed, with a whole paceline in tow. Had to dig hard and got a wheel around 10 back. Moved up a couple in the final two corners by pedaling through the corners, but in the final 200m, I ended up on the outside pretty far from the fast wheels. Didn't have much left and wasn't in a good gear, so after a weak jump, I sat down and spun it out while watching a couple guys pass me on the right. Good news is that one was Seth.
Result: 11th. Seth got 9th. Around 30 finished in the pack--the others got pulled.
Also got my face covered in road grime.
I thought it was a fun race, probably because at the front I didn't see nearly as much sketchiness, though there were plenty of close calls too minor to mention.
My Powertap says the hardest efforts were in the first 60 seconds of the race, the first prime lap, and the follow up to the crash. My final sprint was disappointingly weak by comparison to other recent crits.
Overall, spending effort throughout the race seems like it was a pretty good tradeoff for not having much saved for the end, but I made a couple poor tactical decisions that wasted energy when I should have simply let the race unfold.
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