This past Sunday was my first official criterium race, the Cherry Pie Criterium, called so because the top 3 finishers in each race are rewarded with a cherry pie made from a local bakery.  The race was in Napa so Kelsey and I had planned on going up the day before to enjoy wine country but we decided that we would rather sleep in our own bed and save the money spent on a hotel.  My race was a 7:30AM start time and it was 45 minutes away so we had to get up at 5:30AM to make sure that we had enough time to load the bike onto the truck, pack clothing for the day, and grab a quick bite to eat.  We left on time and arrived just before 6:45AM.

The morning was pretty cool (around 45 degrees) so I knew I would have to wear extra layers to stay warm during my warmup and the beginning of the race.  After parking I headed up to the registration tent to pick up my race number.  The line was kind of long as our race had a field of about 45 and this eventually ate into my warmup time (the bad habit continues).  I eventually got back to the truck and had Kelsey pin the number on my jersey as I unloaded the bike and put the rest of my kit on (kit is cyclist lingo for uniform).  As a side note, it generally takes me at least 10 minutes to pin the number onto my jersey.  For some reason I always seem to pin the jersey together so that I can't actually put my arms thru the sleeve so I was very happy to have Kelsey help and I must note that she did an excellent job.  After getting all of my clothing on and eating some energy chews, I went about getting my 10 minutes of warmup in before the race.

The field just before the start.  I am at the far right, just next to the orange sign.

During my warmup I did get a chance to ride 1 lap of the course and it basically looks like a big loop with a short climb up to the finish line and then a quick 180 degree turnaround at the top of the climb and then you head right back down to the flat loop of the rest of the course.  The whole course was about 1 mile long total and the pavement was pretty good so you should be able to take all turns at full speed (this won't happen later in the race with disastrous results).  

The field coming up the climb just before the turnaround.  

Heading back down after the climb, you can see the barriers at the bottom of the hill guiding us to the right.  Also note the hills in the background marking the western side of the Napa Valley.

The race started and with such a large field it was a little bit chaotic for the first few laps.  Luckily, the short climb did a wonderful job of weeding out all those that couldn't power through the short climb each lap.  Within the first 6 laps the field was almost split in half with those that couldn't keep up and we began to lap some of those that were dropped.

Turning around at the top of the climb.

The pace actually seemed to slow from laps 7-10 as the field rested for an obvious sprint finish.  Then on the second to last lap a crash occurred on the back side of the course with only a lap and a half to go.  I don't know the exact reason for the crash (probably someone braking in a turn) but I can tell you that 2 people went down right in the middle of a turn.  This causes all behind to quickly divert there paths or run over the downed riders.  Luckily, I was just far enough behind the crash to slow down and avoid hitting anyone or anything.  The crash took down about 5 riders, broke the front wheel off of 1 bike and launched 1 rider over a median and into the side of a truck (as noted in the prior post I believe there were no serious injuries).  In the process of avoiding the crash I had slowed to a complete stop and then was forced to ride hard to catch the field.  This was aided by a referee motorcycle "neutralizing" the field in order to help those caught behind the crash catch back.

The major bummer was that by the time I caught the field there was only a half lap to go and I was at the back without much time or energy left to move up.  I did my best to move up but it was to no avail and I finished the race in 23rd place towards the back of the main field.  It was a pretty exhausting last 1.5 laps but not nearly on par with the pain I experienced during the last 15 minutes of the early bird road race.

Yours truly just after the race.  Notice the wonderful pinning of my race number, I am jealous of those skills.

After the race Kelsey and I packed up the truck and headed to find breakfast as it was still only about 8:15AM.  We found a nice place called the Boon Fly Cafe and sat down for a meal.  I know Kelsey enjoyed her chorizo breakfast burrito but I thought the food was mediocre.  This might stem from my love of simple, unhealthy breakfast food so whenever a restaurant tries to make gourmet breakfast, it is mostly lost on me.  Either way, the pancakes I ordered were plenty of food so I left feeling quite satiated.  We drove back to the course and watched some of the higher category races as the day began to warm up.  Kelsey enjoyed sitting in the warm sun (I think it peaked a 68 degrees) and I got to watch more bike racing and continue to build on my memory bank of race tactics.  After watching a few more races we left, drove into Napa, and went to a wine tasting bar that we had been to a year ago.  It was a great way to wind down before our trip home.  

Next weekend marks the first time this year that I won't have a race to go to.  I am definitely looking forward to not traveling and getting to join our weekly Sunday morning team ride (although it typically turns into a race at some point).

Thanks for reading.

P.S.  I have posted a picture below of my fitness software that tracks power, speed, cadence, heart rate, elevation, and temperature on a graph (I began to discuss this in my previous post).  The yellow line is my power output, the red line my heart rate, and blue my speed.  You might be able to make out some of the other numbers but those are a couple to get you started.  All data from Sunday's race.