The James Bailey Criterium: A Human-Powered Roller Coaster
The Cat 3 Schmuck
I must preface this report by explaining that I'm not very competitive in crits. I'm just too wiggy on technical courses in such close quarters with so many other riders. I trust my own bike handling, but no one else's. I can have a great time, though, just hanging on to the back, punching cards as others get dropped. Because of this perspective, I may judge a crit course on unusual criteria. If it's fun from the back, I like it. If it causes constant whip cracking with me at the end of the whip, I don't like it so much.
When I heard about this crit being at the racecar track in Cresson (a.k.a. “Motorsport Ranch”) I expected to like it. Cresson is on some of my training routes and I've stopped several times during rides to watch the boys doing laps with their sports cars and motorcycles. It looked like more fun than my little brain could tolerate and I had wondered if we could ever get permission to have a bike race out there. Leave it to Andy Hollinger to make such daydreams come true.
The weather looked foreboding that morning—the forecast predicted a good chance of thunderstorms (lightening + bike race = cancelled race). I had opted to do the 1/2/3 race because the 3 /4 race was at 7:45 AM and I don't like getting up early. Since I don't care about my placing in crits this worked fine—I'd just have faster wheels to suck. When I arrived, there was a driver on the other track (the race track is actually two loops that can be joined into one long one, and we used only one) in a modified Porsche making it look easy. I've heard a good number of race motors before but I think that was the prettiest sound I've ever heard. That alone made my trip worth the gas money. I thought about ditching the race to watch the cars.
As we were warming up and lining up, I looked around the field and got a little worried about whether I could hang on. It was a nice surprise to see Randy Eller with a number on for the first time in a while. Apparently, his business and new baby haven't left him much time to ride or race. Judging by his confidence level, I wasn't the only one worried about finishing.
Funny, I didn't notice the stiff south wind until we started. This meant a long hill followed by a headwind every lap, since they decided to try the course clockwise for our race. Going clockwise also meant descending the steepest grade on the loop, which was also in the middle of a double-apex 180-degree turn. So long as the road was dry, this was the best part of the course. If you had the guts to do it without brakes the acceleration would pull your cheeks back and the wind would make them flap back and forth. For the most part, the pavement made a glass-top table feel like chip-seal. There are no sharp 90-degree corners like in most crits, only sweeping rounded curves that gave the race a rhythmic flow like a good steel roller coaster. I've never trusted my tires as much as I did on that pavement. The cornering was just spectacular.
I think there was some racing up front. Somewhere along the way, Brett Crosby, John Reed and David Hassan rolled off the front without much protest and no chase ever organized. Stephan, in his usual aggressive style, kept us all on the rivet but he alone couldn't drag the rest of us up to a coordinated break. About 50 minutes in, the drizzle picked up just enough to make the pavement glisten. It made our tires just a bit slippery as one unfortunate Solar Eclipse rider discovered. When you fall on wet pavement while cornering down a steep grade, you'll slide for a long time. It hurt me to watch. Apparently, one of the guys in the break took a spill there too, but he didn't seem to let it ruin his day.
As the race wore on, the group shrunk at a steady rate and I was growing happier to still be there. I considered packing it in a few times out of fear that I'd lose skin on what had once been a fun downhill corner, but I knew I'd be frustrated with myself had I quit with my legs still attached. In the last lap or two, the road dried out just enough to make us feel more confident in the fun corner. The finishing sprint started on the hill climb, but we still had a long stretch with a stout headwind, making the final effort much longer than I would have liked. I think Andy moved the finish line back while we were out on that last lap. It just teased us up there for much longer than on prior laps. Eventually, we got there and it turns out that Brett had won the sprint among the break. I had no clue who took 4 th at the front of our group. I had been too busy enjoying the course to worry about who placed where.