Kenny Bailey’s Golden State Crit Race Report
John Depew and I thought we would “represent” at Saturday’s Golden State Crit, participating in the Masters 35+ Cat 4/5 group (photos courtesy of Zach Hamm). The race didn’t start until 3:50 which makes for an unusual start time. I think we both agree mornings would be a better time to race. The good news about local crits is you take a total of 2 hours out of your day to travel, prep, race, then head home.
It was a nice day to race, sunny with some wind but really didn’t feel it during the race. Since this was sponsored by Rio Strada, they were well represented. Throughout the race, they kept throwing guys out for breakaways where a couple of other teams like SN/Bike Plus would hunt them down. I think they got 1st/2nd overall, so the tactic worked.
Overall, a straightforward crit with no real danger as everyone kept their line. There were a couple of times where a rider would try to sneak past the group by hugging the curb and running over the grates but were quickly “reprimanded” by the peloton as they didn’t need a hot-dogger to take out ½ the group. My the f-bombs were thrown at that guy!
For some unknown reason, we hit the back part of the lap about 13 minutes in and seemed everyone pulled up considerably. I figured I had good inertia heading out the corner and proceeded to take the pull at the front. We will mark that at as my “young bull” move as I burned a couple of matches doing that which proceeded to hurt me at the end.
Last two laps heated up and John was right in the mix with overall placement of 24th. He did fantastic as it was his first crit! I ended up in 40th because of said previous pull move and I sat up. Dumb idea as at least 5 people passed me, including the only girl in the race!
KEY LESSONS:
- Don’t take a pull unless we have 6 riders in the peloton, we want to push the pace, and Rob tells me to.
- Don’t sit up at the end, no matter what place you’re at.
- John and I should have worked together more. I think I should have shielded him the whole race until the last lap then let him go nuts. Need to get educated on that more.