The 35+ Masters criterium had only 33 riders, but there was a lot of horsepower on the starting line nonetheless. A few of the names were ones I'd not normally expect to find in the masters race, which is probably more an indication of the depth of the Cat. 1/2 field than anything else. The Tuscaloosa criterium course is a fairly long one that features a fast downhill down to the river and then a two-stage climb back up to the rest of the course. The race started out fast and a break went off the front right away. I'd come to the race with few expectations and was looking at it more as a hard training ride than a race. I probably shouldn't have done that. So we were about halfway through the race when, as I was hanging out near the back of the field, that an attack on the climb opened a gap a couple of riders ahead of me. I hesitated. The rider ahead of me hesitated. By the time we were back on level ground there was a 20-second gap and our race was basically over. Luckily I was able to get together with the rider who had been ahead of me and we worked pretty smoothly together for the rest of the race, eventually catching a few riders on the final lap. The best I can say is that I didn't get lapped and rolled across the line with an unimpressive 25th place. In the Cat. 4 race I was glad to see Ben riding very aggressively and strongly at the front, even getting off in a 2-rider break for a few laps. Unfortunately he got stuck back in the pack in the last laps and only managed a 12th place finish.
So Sunday morning I headed over to the road race course with Miko who was doing the Cat. 5 race. My own race didn't start until noon, so I had a lot of time to hang around and watch the Cat. 1/2/3s come through a couple of times. The road course is one of those that really wears on you - lots of rolling hills along with a few strategically placed steep and/or long ones. I was feeling marginally more competitive but was still lacking enough confidence to be much of a factor. The first two laps of the 10-mile circuit seemed really fast with lots of attacks and counter-attacks. I think we averaged 25 mph on one of those laps. The end of each lap featured a fairly long and steep climb, and by the second time around I was seriously wondering what I'd gotten myself into. I guess it was around the start of the third lap (we were doing five) when a break of about six got off the front. I tacked onto the end of it at the last minute and stayed there for a couple of miles to see what would happen. A few of the guys were definitely motivated to make a go of it, and when I looked back I could see that we had a huge gap on the rest of the rapidly disintegrating field, so I started taking pulls along with most of the others. I'd say that most of the people in this break were about 75% committed to it, so although the pace would occasionally slacken, it was staying fast enough to be worthwhile. After five or six miles the pace slowed down a bit and a number of riders who had been chasing finally bridged up to us. The field size was now up to maybe 12-14 riders and I was quite relieved that the next time up the finish line hill didn't feature any attacks. This group rolled along for the next lap fairly smoothly and I was even able to ride tempo up the finish line hill in order to keep things a little under control. Somewhere after the start of the last lap, I guess on the longish climb, the group split while I was looking at the scenery at the back. I didn't even know that a break had gotten off the front until the gap was up to maybe 20 seconds. I was frankly rather shocked because there hadn't been any significant response from the pack, but by that time there wasn't much I could do about it. Apparently there were some team tactics afoot at the front, but at any rate the break of six or seven pulled away really quickly, splitting the group almost evenly in half. I was pretty satisfied anyway since the closest thing I'd had to a goal for the race was to finish with the pack. When the predictable attack came on the finish climb, about 400 meters from the finish, I saw Donald kind of blow up and pretty much followed suit, letting the front five or six riders battle it out for the win and just riding smoothly to the finish in 13th place, which I was surprised to discover was still "in the money." Somehow that $20 seemed surprisingly satisfying, though. Meanwhile, Ben kind of saved the day with an impressive 2nd place finish in the Cat. 4 race coming out of a 2-rider break and time-trialing the last lap ahead of the pack.
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