Des Moines Master's Crit

I was thrilled to have my entire family along for the ride down to sunny Des Moines, WA today for the crit. A beautiful waterside town, not many spectators there but good parking and lots of amenities close at hand.

Very hot, but since we did Wenatchee in the heat, it wasn't to disruptive for prep. Stuck with lots of HEED and Endurolytes. Many guys used trainers but I stuck to the road for warm up. Bike Huggers were there mixing smoothies with a smart pair of Surly Big Dummy bikes (or whatever they are called), with the Free Radical extension kit, boy I covet one of those. On my right at the start is big Vern of the nation's largest loose-leaf tea distributor. We talked conspiracy and subterfuge as the start bell sounded.

A great course, hard but fair, great lines in the corners with not too much junk to watch out for. No wrecks. Could smell the salty breeze on the faster backstretch, and then just salty sweat on that graham cracker of a long ascent to start/finish line.

Cuc!na had clear numbers, I think Vern said he counted 8 or 9 guys. We know Tom Donohue and he has been winning a lot lately, and they have been making it look easy, so I think many of the teams did well to keep a couple fellas up front all day, when a Cuc!na would go, he'd kinda get left alone because you knew once reeled back they'd send another one.

Just a whole lot of different teams working well at the front. Consequently it was a little boring as the pack just stayed together the whole time. A BI guy jumped real hard at the start of the graham cracker, maybe half way through. He looked real good moving up and through S/F line. But then he let of the gas after turn 1 and shut it down. He must have thought I made a cheeky remark because he words for me later.

Anyway - around and around we went. I never heard the primes get called, and never saw a chance to get a little group going so with a couple laps left it was clearly going to be a sprint finish. Great. I watched the masters D race and was surprised to see how long the winner waited until he sprinted on his breakaway of 3. Your body wanted to sprint the minute you were through turn 4 and really this was way too soon. I noticed a little sign, a motel or something that marked when the D guy sprinted and tried to make note of it during the race as a reference point for the crux acceleration.

So on final lap, still all together but folks are jumpy, I worked hard to maintain position in each turn of final lap, trying to stay 4-6 places up, once we're through turn 4, you have to attend a little to the traffic buttons, and then go -sort of at maybe 75% power? I got a little boxed in at this point, curb on the right, Vern? in front and someone on the left. So I came in way inside and tried to give it all for what was left. Had a funny thought, that maybe I'd get the benefit of the doubt being so much closer to the refs, nah they had that dang camera. Way to go Vern you madman!

All in all a fun race - don't let anyone say masters arent fast. I was pretty wiped out after only 15 miles of racing. We averaged nearly 24 mph. Did the 4's really do the same distance? Their finish times seem WAY faster than ours...