Anyway. As has become my pre-crit routine, after getting to the venue I walked the course, taking note of corner 1 being very close to the start line, corner 2 was up hill so should be safe, corner three was from a narrow road onto a wide road with a tail wind. Corner 4 looked like the place for the spatula brigade, and was the corner with the pit on it. That corner went from super wide road onto very narrow road, a grate on the inside, a little gravel on the outside and about a city block from the start/finish line. A fairly strait forward square course. All left turns.
I attempted to warm up on the trainer and it wasn't happening. I did a lap of the course. that wasn't so bad. At 15mph the corners were quite tame.Then it was hurry up and wait for the masters group before us to finish.
After they finished we got sent around for two laps while they waited for the next lead car to show up. Once the car was in place we were given our instructions: This was being scored as a points race using track racing scoring. Every 5 laps around the 0.8 mile course there would be a sprint for points. Points went 4 deep. If a rider lapped the field they got 20 points. If the field lapped a rider, they got -20 points. A lapped rider getting lapped a second time would be pulled. A lapped rider was eligible to compete in sprint points again in the next sprint lap after they got lapped. Free lap for incidents up until the second to last sprint lap. Any incidents after that the rider would be pulled but keep their points. As we found out later (though was not clear from pre-race instructions) on the final lap (the final sprint) over all place was also important as points were somehow awarded all the way down, rather than just to the top four as with the other sprints. After that confusing crash course in track scoring, we were sent on our way.
I tried to sit 4th or 5th wheel back but found there were a few ladies who drifted laterally in places that made no sense. I got pinched against curbs. I got run over rough spots. I decided I didn't want any part of that so after 6 laps (after the first sprint where since I was technically in a great lead out spot I should have managed a point or two, but where I was 6th) I took the front and pushed hard... for way too many laps. Sprint two came up and I started increasing my speed right out of corner 3 and continued to increase through corner 4 and tried like mad to hold the other ladies off for the points. I managed 4th and 1 point for my team. Whoo hoo! I moved off the front at that point and into the pack for a lap or two but again lost patience with the slowing and weaving going on "back there" and took the front again. Heck. I won a point the last time... So I led for what was I think 3 laps, into the sprint again. Everything according to plan increasing pace out of turn three and keeping it high into turn four... when someone came around and then cut my line and I went inside. AJ, one of the Central pit guys says it looked like my back wheel hit the grate on turn four, came off the ground and then came down a little sideways to the direction of travel leading to a skid. All I know is the bike was skidding and I was thinking "I hope they have their spatulas" and then I was going forward again and people were sprinting and I hit it... but came in 5th by just a fraction of a bike. I lost my nerve a bit after that and hung out mid field/ on the back... seeing a few moves I should have made, seeing some moves others should have made. Just wanting the race to be done. The last 10 laps were pretty uneventful. I failed to give it my all in the sprint on the last lap since I knew I was not in contention for 1 - 4 and maybe lost a place or two and the associated finish points due to that.
I survived.
My overall place in the crit was 6th.
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