This past Saturday, our team lined up to contest the Garrett Wonders Memorial Criterium in downtown Westerville, OH. Huge thunderstorms rolled through early Saturday morning, waking me up around 4 AM with visions of racing through rain-flooded streets. Fortunately, though, the rain subsided and by the time we took the start line, the skies had cleared quite nicely.
Nine members of the mighty Walker Companies - Olympus Homes squad lined up for the titanic struggle on Saturday morning. The pace was hard from the gun and stayed that way pretty much the entire time. I was thrilled to find my wife and daughter stationed at the first corner of the course, cheering for me on every lap.
With our large numbers, our general plan was to keep things together and try to set up a sprint for either Jason or Scott. There were a fair number of primes given out and this kept the race animated, but never really created a big move off the front. (BTW, I think Chris Grisvard won at least three primes… man, I don’t know how the guy does it, but he knows how to stay in position and when to attack.) As for myself, I tried my best to stay near the front and contribute to the chase efforts any time there was a gap at the front. As the pace ramped up going into the bell lap, Scott told me to get on his wheel… easier said than done. I tried to hang on to him, but was forced off by a couple of guys who beat me to the punch. In the end, Scott was able to pull out a strong 3rd place finish, and I ended up somewhere around 12th. Turns out that if your peak power is somewhere south of 1,000 watts, you don’t stand much of a chance in a crit. Who knew? I think Scott received a few bucks for his effort, but I think my reward was even better.
Nine members of the mighty Walker Companies - Olympus Homes squad lined up for the titanic struggle on Saturday morning. The pace was hard from the gun and stayed that way pretty much the entire time. I was thrilled to find my wife and daughter stationed at the first corner of the course, cheering for me on every lap.
With our large numbers, our general plan was to keep things together and try to set up a sprint for either Jason or Scott. There were a fair number of primes given out and this kept the race animated, but never really created a big move off the front. (BTW, I think Chris Grisvard won at least three primes… man, I don’t know how the guy does it, but he knows how to stay in position and when to attack.) As for myself, I tried my best to stay near the front and contribute to the chase efforts any time there was a gap at the front. As the pace ramped up going into the bell lap, Scott told me to get on his wheel… easier said than done. I tried to hang on to him, but was forced off by a couple of guys who beat me to the punch. In the end, Scott was able to pull out a strong 3rd place finish, and I ended up somewhere around 12th. Turns out that if your peak power is somewhere south of 1,000 watts, you don’t stand much of a chance in a crit. Who knew? I think Scott received a few bucks for his effort, but I think my reward was even better.
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