Mt. Pleasant Crit. – Cat. 3 – Sat. June 13, 2009 – finished outside top 10.
Despite the ominous gray cloudscape prominent in Grand Rapids this day, a short trip north revealed mostly sunny skies with some of those fluffy cumulous clouds that pose no real threat of rain – temp about 70. The 4 p.m. start time was also a welcome change from the 8 and 9 a.m. starts common to road racing.
A gripe before my race report – Crits are often advertised as (time) + (laps)…in this case, 60 minutes plus 3 laps. However, I can’t remember the last crit I raced where we actually had the advertised number of laps after the advertised duration of the race. I understand the necessity to keep an entire day’s worth of races on schedule, but when the race finishes in 59 minutes and change, it would be more accurate to simply advertise “60 minutes.” That is not directed at Mt. Pleasant’s organizers specifically, but just a trend I’ve noticed.
With that, the Mt. Pleasant course was good – very wide roads & corners with the exception of a one-block stretch between the penultimate and last turn on the course. It was a standard 1.4 KM L-shaped course with a VERY long straight shot to the finish after the last turn (Mapmyride.com tells me 400 meters from last corner to finish – you won’t find many crits with a longer finishing straight.)
Being the only Leadout member in this race, I was dramatically outnumbered by 5 or 6 Priority Health riders, as well as maybe 10-12 MCG guys – accounting for nearly 2/3’s of the 29-rider field. I got a good start off the line, and slotted into 2nd wheel around the first turn – just to stay out of trouble and stay in position to cover any breaks. I covered pretty much everything that moved that had an MCG or Priority rider in it for the first few laps.
As happens so often, just as I drifted back in the field to relax a minute, the race’s major break went up the road, with Adam York from MCG and Mike Jones (not the rapper) from Priority. They never exceeded a 10-15 second gap, but it was clear that some work was needed to bring them back, with their dozen-plus collective teammates massing at the front to disrupt the pace whenever possible.
My work in this race has some history, based on the fact that breakaways and lazy or non-existent chasing have dominated the Cat. 3 races in Michigan this year. Maybe it was a bad choice in the long run, but I decided I didn’t just want to sit in and wait for a 3rd place bunch sprint. Even with other teams not represented in the break, I took the initiative to start keeping the time gap in check. For at least 20 minutes, I rode hard tempo at the front for about a lap at a time, taking a break, then getting back on the front, slowly clawing the break back. I used the gutter as much as I could, trying to make it as hard as possible for the green-and-black anchors sitting behind me to catch a draft. Finally, after the break started to get visibly closer, I got some help from a couple Maple Leaf and Wolverine guys, and the break was caught.
At that point, about 5 laps to go, another break went with Florian from Priority and an MCG guy (don’t know who). The same chase scenario played out, but over a much shorter time frame. With about 2 to go, it was all together. Shortly after, Taylor Birmann from Priority made a hard attack and stayed off the front for the remainder of the race, just barely crossing the line ahead of the sprinting field.
As for my finish, I had 2nd thoughts about whether or not I could have slotted myself in for a better sprint, but I was happy with the effort I had made, and rolled across the line just behind the sprint. Getting recognition from announcer Frankie Andreu was not too bad either. Overall, it was a fun crit – with a few teammates, we would definitely have been on the podium, if not the top step.
-Mark Hotchkin-