The Ballard Criterium is from what I have heard a pretty hard criterium. First, let me back up a bit. The last couple weeks I started racing down at Pacific Raceways on Tuesday nights. This makes a Tuesday night pretty fun. Much better than riding around on the streets by the house. Each week they change the course up so that keeps it interesting. The first week I raced their I sprinted for far too long and popped right at 50 meters to go and finished in the top 10 or around there. Then this last week I finished 3rd in the sprint up the hill in turn 3. I also raised my max heart rate to 196 bpm. Which is just crazy to me because when I started racing bicycles my max was 186. These races are really good for the training, even though they are only 45 minutes in duration I have been able to really see what my legs and body are made of. So far so good. With that in hand I was looking forward to the race no matter how hard people said it was. I also recently upgraded to category 4 which means the competition gets even harder. The Ballard Crit would be a combined field of category 4 and 5 racers. I met up with Mike and Travis on the Cycle University Team and proceeded to make our way to the course. Once their we met up with my parents and the rest of the team and were able to ride the course a bit before the racing started. Oh the course was kinda scary. I had a bad feeling it was going to be real hard and dangerous. Their were 4 left hand turns with the first left on a slight down hill with a slight sink hole in the middle of the corner and several cracks in the pavement. Then a short shoot to the next left turn which also had cracked pavement. This corner wasn't so bad actually(All the corners had several hay bales stacked up and posts covered with bales). Then through the back straight against a head wind. The 3rd left hander was ok but you had to watch your line because in the middle of the corner there was a man hole cover with some broken up pavement around it. The 4th and final corner had bricks all the way through the corner. This was going to be tough. We got maybe 2 laps before the Master's (35yrs old+) group went out, so there wasn't much time to get your lines and the corners sorted out. I have a thing where I have to got to the bathroom right before I race, it doesn't matter if its motorcycles or bicycles. Mike and I waited in line for the only 2 port-o-potties on the sidewalk and when we came out they had lined everyone up for the start. We made our way and parked it right in the front and one of the officials wasn't to keen on that so we moved to the back of the group. I wasn't to keen on being at the very back but I guess it was a bit rude to just show up and park it right in the front. We got some advise from Coach Ed from Cycle U right before the start, his advise was to hang on for life because the first 10-15 minutes is going to be crazy. I really don't remember the first couple laps. I remember wondering how many are racing because our group was huge. My goal was to make my way to the front quarter of the group as fast as I could so nobody got away. I found a good line I liked and it was on the outside of everyone else. I could carry some good corner speed and generally would pass at least 2-3 guys on the outside as long as I didn't get pinched. Going over the bricks was pretty cool until we were at race pace. Then it felt just like racing motorcycles and getting on the gas to early coming out of a corner and having the back tire break loose. The first time it happens its kinda sketchy but after you get used to it and the bike doesn't spit you off on the pavement, then its ok. The first couple times I had to verify I didn't have flat because the back end kept sliding out. After I realized thats how it was going to be I just ignored it and let it work itself out. I should also mention that this course flatted atleast 3 guys I saw due to the hard changes in pavement. This race was 35 minutes in length and with 10 minutes to go to the finish the promoters would start counting down by laps.
I would say it was in the first 15 minutes when the carnage started happening. Going down the back straight there was a huge pile up. I had some room to miss this but there must of been atleast 5 or more people on the ground. Then a couple laps later in the 3rd corner I see my teammate Jed in the air, then on his back sliding looking right at me. Grabbed some breaks, got the bike sliding but was able to get stopped before hitting a bike. Props to him though as I saw him back on the course later still racing. I made my way to the front by this stage and was in the top 20 and several times in the top 5. I was 100% sure I didn't want to get to the front by mistake and take any pulls. I pulled enough getting myself to be there. The plan was to hang out with this group and with 2 laps left start slowing making my way to the front 10. Then on the last lap I was going to run my lines on the outside and see if I could get a bit of a break before we got on the front straight. At that point it would be the finish sprint, may the best win. We got the 3 laps to go sign, came around the back straight fine and then the 4th corner right before the start a big crash happened. It seemed that every crash happened right in front of me. I took evasive action, which was both hands with a handfull of brakes front and rear. First the back end fishtailed right, then left, then I got it back to the right again and at this point I was heading for a pole, curb and haybale. First thought was, there goes my front rim, then I was like, this might hurt. Thankfully the bike and myself were completely sideways sliding as I hit the haybale. No curb and no pole. Yes! I got my foot unclipped, pushed myself through the bikes and bodies and headed off. My handlbars were slightly bent, so I hit them a few times to get them straightened out. I tried to get back on to the main group but I was too far off the back. I put in some hard efforts on the back straight but my legs were toast and I thought, hell at this stage I am sure there will be another crash and I could end up in the top 10! There was another crash but only involved 2 guys. I was caught by a group of 4 guys that were also off the back that were caught out by one of the many wrecks and we all sprinted to the line. As far as I know everyone who wrecked was ok. I haven't heard that anyone was hurt beyond bruises and severe road rash. Having the family there yelling at you everytime you went by was pretty cool. Everytime I went by I looked forward to getting back around again so I could hear the encouragement to keep going!
Out of 78 riders only 29 finished the race. I finished 25th. For sure not a place I wanted to finish but considering I was almost on the ground 2 maybe 3 times, I was fairly happy to finish.
Thanks to Mom, Dad, Uncle Craig, Trav and Lindsay for being there. Thanks to the Cycle U crew.
