Keith Berger Crit

[swawersik]

Course: 4 corner crit with a trapezoidal shape, so turn 2 is a little more than 90 degress (maybe 100?), and turns 3 and 4 are close enough to be almost linked. 20 times around.

In the past at this race, I've always seemed to lose position on the last few laps, so that I'd be playing catch-up on the final sprint. So my goal was to not do that this year. I sort of managed it.

From the gun, 5 guys rolled off the front. They were initially met with a shrug, but it quickly became clear that there was some horsepower up there. I initially helped with the chase, then jumped into a 4 man bridging move. We made it across, but the whole operation was caught shortly afterwards. Then a series of counterattacks started, but once I could see that they were being shut down, I let myself slide back into the pack to recover a bit. As a consequence of all these shennanigans, the first 7 laps were stinkin' hard.

The next 8 laps were pretty tame, with the only real efforts coming on prime laps. I typically moved towards the front on these to keep an eye out for breaks forming off the prime sprint. Nothing stuck, though. I think everyone realized after the opening laps that the pack wasn't going to give anyone much of a leash. The only excitement came from a Cyclonauts rider who kept making sudden line changes in the middle of the pack. I was in a brief three man break last weekend at Wells with this guy - after he came close to crashing both me and the other guy out on separate occasions in the space of a lap, I did my best to avoid him. If there was ever a rider who should be banned from bike races, it's this guy.

So now we're heading into the final laps, and everybody's had 8 laps of relative recovery. This is a recipe for disaster. With each lap, things got successively hotter. By the final lap, the race was a swirling mass of chopping and bumping, with a few riders with bad handling and/or questionable fitness thrown in. The last time around the backside, I'd gotten a bit swamped, but anticipated the surge out of turn 2 and found a forward moving line on the left and was moving up into the top 10 wheels. Just ahead on my right came the sound of wheels touching, followed by the crunch of carbon. Next thing I know, there's a bike flying across my path at head height (kind of a surreal sight, really). Somehow, I managed to make it through, but was now a couple of bike lengths off the lead group. Trying to catch on, I took corner 3 really hot, which had me coming up on the back of the group into turn 4 faster than I expected. I ended up with a choice of grabbing brake or pulling a really deangerous dive-bomb on the inside. Since I would already be sprinting for scraps, and have no pro contract in my future, I chose caution (brake). 14th/35-ish.

Crit ettiquite question: I thought of this afterwards, but would it have been reasonable for me to call "inside" as I was coming up on that final (right) turn? The guy in front of me had nobody on his left and could easily have given me the space without losing speed, but if he did so, he would also have let a competitor (me) pass him on the right. My feeling is that, unlike other points of the race, I should have no expectation that he'd let me through and would therefore make that move at my own risk. What do other crit racers think?

[pace21]

I call "inside" and move in to questionable gaps at least a couple times per race. There are 2 criteria that must be met before I do it: Will this guy hold his line if I call out?, and is there 12" there so I can physically fit without contact? If yes to both, game on. I've cut it close a few times and had to over-lean / counter steer to fit. Those weren't awesome moves on my part.

[swawersik]

I call "inside" and move in to questionable gaps at least a couple times per race. There are 2 criteria that must be met before I do it: Will this guy hold his line if I call out?, and is there 12" there so I can physically fit without contact? If yes to both, game on. I've cut it close a few times and had to over-lean / counter steer to fit. Those weren't awesome moves on my part.

I do too, and I don't have any problem with people (safely) doing it to me - I'll do my best to give them space. My question is whether the same rules apply on the final turn or two, where the effect on the final outcome of the race is magnified.

[JeremyC]

When in doubt, divebomb!