Tour de Gaslight

This past weekend I raced in my first Tour de Gaslight State Criterium Championship.  Since the season is winding down this race was a kind of a welcoming sign,  soon I will be able to sit around and watch college football.  The season has been long and hard, but I have learned a lot about racing and myself. Leading up to this race my training had been giving me some good feedback, so I was ready.   However this race was going to come down to a sprint, my weakness.  So I knew my goal for the day was 100% breakaway all or nothing, that was my shot.

The warm summer had yielded to some cooler days, so that was to my advantage.  The circuit was near a mile long around Gaslight Village and East Grand Rapids High School.  The course was flat and somewhat technical with a sharp left hander after a long back stretch leading into a head wind.  Positioning into that corner was key for the finish. This circuit was set up to be fast.  Unlike many races prior, today I made and effort to line up on the front row.  I wanted to get and early jump and position myself on the front.

We were maybe a little to tightly packed on the line, I was sure someone was going to hook handlebars and wreck.  However the start was clean and I took off as planned quickly slotting in line at the front.  At the end of the first lap there was a small push by three to get off the front of the pack.  I didn't want this to happen so I drove the pace of the pack to bridge the gap back.  However though, that also meant I was leading the pack into the first corner at speed for my first time.  I horribly miss gauged the corner and nearly went wide into the curb.  After the gap was closed I decided to relax a little and wait for my chance at a break.   At around 15 minutes into the 50 minute race the bell was rung for the first prime prize lap.   This is generally a good time to make a move so I got myself ready.  Sure enough as we went to the line 3 guys had driven away from the pack, so I quickly jumped the gap and joined them.

We were a strong group of four, I thought for sure we had a chance at being that break.  The one that got away for the race.  We stayed off the front for 3 laps I believe, but the pack was having nothing of us getting away.  I think they saw the danger and strength of us four and they worked hard to bring us back in.   Once caught I decided I best relax for a bit.  I had been on or off the front far to much, a better strategy would have been to save energy for the inevitable sprint.   That didn't mean things were easy though, fending for position in the pack is cut throat.  At one point I was run wide up onto a curb and another time bumped elbows with a fellow rider.   After the curb incident I moved to the back of the pack, mostly cause I wasn't sure if I had cut my tire or not when the carbon rim hit the concrete.  Luckily I hadn't, but not being able to trust your tire for a few laps makes things very interesting.  As time ran out, I knew my chances were feeble.  I had played my cards, and the field ate me up.  All that was left was to give it what I had and try to fight with the sprinters.  I only got 29th out of 42.  I wasn't let down by the day though.  I knew my strategy was break,  I tried and failed.  Some days the breakaway works, but not on a day were the race pace averages near 26.5 miles per hour.

Gaslight Full Results