Date: March 22, 2003
Event: McLane Pacific Cycling Classic Criterium
Category: Senior 3
Place: Mid-pack
Field: 120

Today’s race required an early wakeup (5am) and a long drive over to the central valley. I hadn’t done this criterium before so I didn’t know what to expect. By the looks of things, while driving down 99 towards Merced, I assumed a basic agro town. It turns out that Merced is rather large for an agro town and has some nice neighborhoods. The race was located in one of those neighborhoods, circling around a small park and on the edge of residential area. The day became gorgeous sunny and hot. No need for layers in this race. After warming up on the trainer I headed out to ride around the neighborhood streets. I passed by many beautiful old houses in the area.

After a couple of warm-up sprints I circled back and headed to the starting line. It was a full field and we were packed in tight. Without a pause we were off into the race. The course itself a rectangle with a short left-right on one corner. This little section would string the pack out throughout the race.

From the start I could tell my legs did not have the gas I needed. Each time I attempted some power efforts, my right leg in particular would twinge with soreness. I decided to drop into the pack and try to work the legs out some more. But this also presented problems since the pack was constantly stringing itself out. Therefore, I was constantly working to stay in the pack. I worked a few times towards the front but my legs were suffering too much and I would soon fall backwards.

The multiple prime laps also kept the pace up most of the race. Great when you are feeling good, terrible when you aren’t. So, I simply held on and rode with the pack until the finish.

On a side note, in the last lap I was riding back off the front pack, around 45th, and some idiot in front of me dives on the inside of a corner and almost takes out another guy. This idiot had no chance, none, zippo, of finishing in the top 10 or even the top 20. What they heck was he thinking?

So it was for the McLane Pacific Criterium.