Sugar crit 123

Sugar Crit 123

Being my third year racing sugar crit all I can say is that this is my favorite crit venue that I’ve ever raced, and every year the race becomes faster and more fun. When I did this race last year in the 3/4s and won with a solo break with a few laps to go. After my win I was then kind of pushed into the 123s with sore and tired legs and was killed in the first couple laps by some of the best racers in Texas. This year however I was racing only the 123s only and had no excuse for a poor performance. The weather happened to be beautiful with sunshine and few clouds.

After about 20 minutes of warming up in a parking garage and getting my rollout I got lined up at the start finish and waited for the announcers to go through the pre race announcements. The announcers then called a few Racers to the front as a call out for the crowd including myself. Being called out and getting to line up in front of the pack with David Wenger (Supra Squadra), Kevin Kremke (Bike Barn), and a couple other of the fastest racers in the state is defiantly a really cool experience that I don’t get to experience too much first hand, another reason I lover this race.

The race started out just as I remember it from last year, it was an all out sprint to the first corner, and I quickly found my self-midpack and fighting my way to the front. Crits as fast and technical as Sugar tend to breakup really fast and never finish with a large pack finish. After about 2 laps of all out attacks and crazy speeds I finally made it towards the front of the pack and was where I wanted to be to prepare for any attacks or break attempts that is when I realized that I was in a select group of riders off the front with a lot of the strong racers of the field in it. But even when I was in a break with only about 10 riders the attacks were still going off, and I was finding very little recovery in this break. The pack then slowly started to bring us in when a second hard attack went, a lot of the strong riders that were in the original break went with this move and I quickly found my self between the leaders and the main field with Jason Bentley (Brain and Spin) and Colt (GCCA). After a couple laps of trying to close the gap to the leaders we were caught by the main pack and I was spent from several laps of chasing. I quickly got to the front of the pack to try to save energy and recovery. At this point Alan Ting (Supra Squadra) made a hard attack to try to bridge to the leaders, I was on his wheel and gave it all I could to hang on but after about 50 meters I lost connection with his wheel and fell back to the pack and watched the break gain time on the pack with every corner it took. Soon after the break was out of sight around the corners of the Sugarland Town center I was able to catch my breath and get focused on trying to get the best possible place I can. In the main field GCCA had a large team that was constantly at the front pulling trying to bring back the leaders.  In the final 3 laps the pace had gotten higher and we caught a 3 man group that fell off the leaders and I could see that the riders behind me were licking their chops with only a few more laps left. In the final lap there was a large crash in front of me heading out of turn 2 where the 4 guys in front of me went down, I was able to find a 4 inch hole and ride through it with unblinking eyes, not one person followed me through that crash and I was now in no mans land and still needing to get to the line. When I finished I found out that I had gotten 13^th, a new best result in the P12 field.

 

Again sugar didn’t surprise me as being one of my highlighted races of the Texas circuit, All I can tell my self is that I was just one move off of being on the winning break and All I have to do next time is just time the areas where I expend energy better. I know that I can be a top racer in the P12 field and all I have to do is learn where and when to work as well as how to suffer more then I ever have. Can’t wait till my next race.