CORC/ONYA Civic/Belco Crits round 1

Motivation has been lacking a bit for the last 1.5 weeks and it has been a great little break. All I needed was a little temptation to get me back out there and this was it.


I was a bit un-easy going into a crit with very little efforts since the big one, so I decided I'd head out for a bit of a spin before work. I headed up towards the Rob Roy range, on a little tarred road this is one of the steepest climbs around and before it was tarred it was pretty much un-ride able. So I pushed the granny as my HR went sky rocketing and the bike un-controllable snaked it's way up to the top where the skydivers do there thing. It was a good little effort and within 1/2 an hour I was back home getting ready for work.

A, B, A, B was my thoughts of the day confused with which grade I should go for. A's I knew I would be lacking the pace but being able to sit back go hard within my boundary's without the tussle seemed like a good idea. B's can be full on with a solid battle jostling for positions I do find it hard to get into my own rhythm. A choice I decided I'd make when I get there.

It was great to see such a good turn out to crits on the first round. I love the atmosphere of the crits, it just seems to create this fun and exciting vibe. So I put my name down for B's, as crits is all about the close battle's and really it is not a race without it. We jumped on the line I was in second row, and we were off, I had a great clip in and jumped in behind Franky into the ST. Usually in the ST I lack a little pace, but was happy that I kept up with the front runners. The course was fireroad up and tight twisty ST back down with the only passing available really on the fireroad. With 4 laps and only 4 sections to overtake those were some solid efforts. In the end I held my own in the ST, but lacked some pace on the fireroads where I dropped back 3-4 place's. I was happy with that, last year it was reversed I sucked in the ST but smashed the roads. Hopefully I'll get some of my top end back and slowly build up and get these legs going again.

So my lungs seem like they were still burning this morning, it definitely blew out some cobwebs. I was surprised with so many riders who were backing up for 2 or even 3 grades....maybe next week my lungs will be able to pull through both B's and A's.

Here is an extra picture from Worlds, Thanks to Jason Heddle for it, it was early on Sunday morning with a few laps to go.