So we headed down to Fayetteville, North Carolina late this morning for the 2008 Patriots Criterium. The course was a simple four right turn course in a downtown area, which as we predicted – was fast! It was a pretty crazy day.

All the junior races were in the morning. I had a teammate in the 1/2/3 race after noon and then another teammate in the Cat 4 race. Even cooler is that in my race, I had two teammates and I was very thankful for that. The other nice thing is that along with my usual cheering section of Amanda, I also had her parents. Those two factors were really great and a good boost.

Our race ended up being a bit delayed due to the motorcycle official crashing at the end of the Cat 4 race. It’s horrible the official crashed and had to be taken to the hospital, but I still felt bad for my Cat 4 teammate who had to ride like 15 neutralized laps and then they restarted with a lap to go. It sucks for all the racers in that – all that work and it came down to a separated single lap.

Anyway, our race finally commenced and it was fast from the start, with the route being totally flat. Early on, I stayed close to the front, but the 86 degree heat was a bit of a hindrance to my stamina. This was my first criterium in such heat, or at such a late time. Typically, the Cat5 races are the first of the day around 8am.

Anyway, a sandbagger took off the front and was never able to be caught for the entire race. A second set of four riders also went off the front soon after and never got caught. That group included my teammate, Andy who eventually finished second who was powerful off the bat and strong throughout. He finished first place out in the Winston Salem Downtown Crit a way back as well.

So anyway, I didn’t feel as strong in this crit. I’m really hoping it was just that the heat zapped me and more summer training will nip that in the bud. I continued for awhile near the front of the main field, and fluctuated position in that group as the laps moved on.

Eventually though, I started to weaken and started to drop back through the field when I heard a voice say, “Ryan, get on.” It was my new teammate, Stephen passing by. It was the first time I had seen him all race. I immediately got on his wheel and started to recharge a bit. We flew through the final laps in a blur and I was so thankful that he was in the race. It was a real boost to me physically and mentally. In the final lap, I was pretty much out of juice, but somehow was able to finish. Pretty much everyone sprinted in the final stretch and Stephen and I finished within a few positions of each other (He was a few ahead).

As I write this post, I don’t know exactly where I ended up, but somewhere in the low 20’s, but hopefully the results will post later this week. The heat was a definite factor, and I do wonder if it had been a normal early morning start if I would have fared better. Regardless, I still feel like I made some progress, staying patient and drifting up and back through the main field multiple times.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 9:01 pm and is filed under Cycling, Personal Crap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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