The Dirt Field

The Race: Roswell Criterium

The Course: 60 minutes, 5 left turns

The Field: Pro 1/2/3 women

The Finish: Far too early

Despite the hard racing the night before and the stress of traveling, my legs felt decent going into this race. It was another sprint from staging to the starting line to fight for position, but I was more prepared this time and got a decent spot about halfway back. The race started hard, but not as fast as Athens and the pace slowed significantly at the first turn. Left turn, left turn, left turn, then up the slight hill at the back of the course, left turn, left turn, down the home stretch, repeat.

The field barely strung out in the first ten minutes, so we took the corners slowly and then sprinted out of them in the longer stretches. After a handful of laps, I wanted to see if I could get out of the back half of the pack, so I sprinted up the left side through the long start/finish stretch. Getting into the front before the corner was key to avoid cutting anyone off on the inside of the corner. I made it clear of the group, but when I took the left turn, I didn’t take it as tightly as the pros riding at the front and was bumped by a racer on my outside. I swerved slightly as a result and annoyed the women on the other side of me, and as they zipped past, several of them had choice words. It made me feel pretty stupid and shook my confidence, so I dropped back into the field to ride with Monika.

Since my legs felt decent and the pace wasn’t too aggressive, my plan was to stay towards the back and then make a hard move in the final few laps. At just over 15 minutes in, we were entering the third corner when a rider in front of us faltered, caused other riders to crash, and veered across the course as her tire exploded. Monika and I came to a stop and had to take the gutter to get around the crash, and by then the field had opened a gap. I sprinted to catch back on but couldn’t make it, and since I thought I understood the concept of the free lap, I pulled into the pit and told the officials that I’d been behind a crash. They seemed cool with it and were prepping me to rejoin the field as Monika pulled in to do the same, and then confusion ensured. She was #267 and they started saying, “267 has to go, 267 has to go!” I asked if I did as well and they said the motor ref said we didn’t get a free lap, so we got back on the course and rode away. As we rode through the start/finish area, the USA Cycling official pulled us off the course and that was it.

We later spoke to the motor ref to clarify why we weren’t given a free lap and why we were pulled, and he explained exactly what has to occur to qualify for the lap. Then he said that one of us, either 267 or 266 (my number), did qualify for the lap, that he hadn’t known which one it was, and that he tried looking for us after we’d been pulled but wasn’t able to find us. How he’d have known which one to pick remains a mystery.

Lessons learned: (1) My handling is not as good as the pros, so if I’m going to go in front, it needs to be where I am confident that I will not get in the way. (2) You have to hit the ground to get a free lap. (3) Crits can be very frustrating and crash-filled.

Photos from the men’s race: