I had a rude awakening when I entered my first crit. Probably my fault for joining into a cat 3/4 race rather than just a 4th cat but even so hoped that I’d be able to sit in the bunch… how wrong I was.
Spat out the back very quickly when it went MENTAL after the start. I set all sorts of power PR’s over the whole race and went way above FTP too many times to count because of the accordion effect out of corners.
My cornering wasn’t good enough, I was cautious riding close to others through bends, cut too much speed and then had to re-accelerate. These take their toll and you’ve got to save those matches… Conserve energy wherever possible. Conserve, conserve, conserve!
However, my day was made and I keep thinking back to the end of the race with pure joy as tips and tricks taken from NorCal and TR Race Analysis videos on YouTube had given me some advice which I remembered. I ended up in a small group battling for the very low places and ended up on the front with a few hundred metres to go. Knowing where the wind was coming from on the slight drag uphill to the line I positioned myself perfectly to force anyone wanting to come around me to pop out into the wind and I lead the sprint out and cycled away from them all to “win”. That one little victory has me gagging to get back and race again…
Enjoy it.