By Amanda Eaken -- Santa Cruz Crit XXXIV (W1-3) -- 04/15/07
The comfortably warm sunny Santa Cruz weather was a welcome relief after racing in the hurricane at Sea Otter on saturday. I drove up from Seaside sunday morning in time to watch the Metromint women sweep the podium at the Cat 4 race. Sufficiently inspired, I jumped on the trainer to warm up. I had been told the Santa Cruz crit draws a decent crowd since many of the pro teams are still in town after the Sea Otter Circuit NRC race. I rolled up to the line to see probably 45 or 50 girls including Cheerwine, Aaron's Pro Cycling, a couple Value Act girls, a couple Proman girls a few Tibco's, and of course the ubiquitous Amber Rais. The crit course is a gem - I strongly recommend this course to everyone for next year. The start/ finish is at the top of a small hill, the peloton rolls out and almost immediately is heading down a small hill, into a 180 hairpin turn into another small downhill, then a flat windy section, a right hand turn a little rise, a speed bump, another small hill, a sharp right, and then the only real uphill in the course, back to the start/finish straight away.
We would race 30 laps. I had been told by some teammates who did this race as 3s last year that it was very fast.
The thing I noticed the most in the first few laps was how many times I had to frustratingly brake brake brake and lose momentum and then sprint out of corners. This seemed to be true at the front or back of the peloton, worst at the 180, where everyone slowed way down and stood to sprint out of the corner - not a great way to preserve strong legs for a final sprint. Made a mental note that it would be much easier to ride this course fast alone -taking my own lines through turns, something Sarah Miller figured out in her solo break away in the cat 4 race.
Aaron's and Cheerwine did a ton of attacking, but nothing could stay away on this course. There were a bunch of primes, my favorite of which was the notorious "peanut butter prime" - would you sprint for 40 oz of skippy? Not me.
Around 10 to go I flatted on a nasty pothole and sprinted back to the start/finish for my free lap and pit wheel. I had never actually flatted in a crit before - thanks to Rob Collier - I actually had wheels in the pit and could jump back in the race with a little shove from the race director as the pack went by.
With two to go, I focused on positioning for the final sprint. On the hill before the start/ finish I moved up to the top 5 riders or so, and with one lap to go, I took advantage of what felt a bit like people resting up for the final sprint and pushed it up the climb and jumped on to the Aaron's lead out girl's wheel. For most of the last lap I was riding second wheel and the field seemed fairly strung out. I started to have big thoughts of a top finish since the Aaron's girl was head down, hammering, leading me out! I wondered how far she would take the lead out. Sadly the Aaron's girl died around the bottom of the last climb and I was out in the wind. Up the last hill it was a bit of a free for all with several sprinters vying for the win. Kat Carrol from Aaron's took 1st, I held on to my good starting positioning to sprint for 9th, a finish just inside the money - good enough for some cash and yet another ugly Velo Promo T-shirt that I'll never wear. Still, I'll take the T-shirt over a jar of peanut butter!