Last weekend was my 13th birthday and now I finally get to officially claim that I'm a teenager. Of course, what did I do over my birthday weekend? I raced!
The first stop was Albany, Georgia. My mom and I drove up there Friday night for the Saturday morning criterium. My dad was supposed to race too, but he was up in New York for a funeral and wasn't able to get back in time.
This was only the second time ever I've raced a crit, and I knew I needed the experience before Road Nationals in July. Doing road races feels so much different than doing mountain bike races. For one thing, I know so many people in the mountain bike community (and so many seem to know me) and I hardly know anybody in road. Also, mountain bike racing is much more casual.
The juniors all started together and it was hard to tell which class people were racing in. One guy, a 17-18 racer, went off the front on about lap 3 or 4. I tried to chase him briefly, which spread the field really thin when they tried to chase me, but when I realized he wasn't in my class, I decided it wasn't worth going after him, and I slowed down and settled in at the back of the pack to rest for a lap or two. The course was really short--basically a 2-block square--and each lap lasted less than 2 minutes. This race was different from the one I did in Brooksville last year too. At that race, there were a lot of games going on, attacks being made and speed changes at different places around the course. For this one, there didn't seem to be much of that. It was just more or less straight up racing, which I liked better. I finished first in my age group and third overall, which was a great way to start my birthday weekend.
If you want to see what crit racing is like, check out the video my dad put together of the race.
2013 SB&T Bike Downtown Junior Criterium - Albany, GA from MTBMike on Vimeo.
From Albany, my mom and I drove to Jackson, Georgia to meet my dad (who was flying in from New York) and to pre-ride the course for the race on Sunday. I have to say I was not happy with the course. It seemed rutted out more than last year and I didn't have very good luck at Dauset the last 2 years, so I wasn't feeling too positive going into the race. I was confident I could do well, but it's just not my favorite place to race. If you don't know why I say that, you can go back to my old posts from 2011 and 2012.
Sitting on the line I tried to concentrate on this race. I got a great start and went into the woods first. Behind me, people were making mistakes and scrambling to catch back up, while I just continued to ride my pace. I wish I had been able to see all the action because I probably would've made more attacks and tried harder to lose them on the first lap, but I was trying to conserve energy when I could because Dauset can be a tough course, even though it's not super long.
Anyway, I managed to keep Carter behind me for almost the whole last lap. Then, just when I thought I was going to be home free, (because I knew there would be nowhere else to really pass), Carter made an unexpected move and got around me just before a sharp turn the last 1/2 mile or so from the finish. I rode his wheel and tried to pass him back, but like I said, there really wasn't any safe place to do it. We sprinted to the finish, but there's no open space before the chute either, so I pretty much knew it was a lost cause. We finished 1 and 2 with McKenly only a couple of seconds behind for third. I was extremely disappointed, but I figure I will just have to make it up to Carter by beating him this weekend at Bump-n-Grind. LOL :-)
2013 US Cup East SERC#6 Dauset Trails - Jackson, GA Cat 2 15 to 18 from MTBMike on Vimeo.
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