Half Acre Kevin's Crit Number One
- We here in the City That Works know that, in fact, many things don't quite work. And especially when you're talking about things bicycle-related, things that you would think are quite easy to make work, are in fact very difficult and complicated to make work. But in this case, on this day, the fine folks at Half Acre Cycling worked it out.
At a shade past five, the Tatitos rolled out and onto the path, intersecting with IIT rider and new Team TATI recruit Loren Bo and his teammate Chase. It was a bit chillier than expected, and I quietly tsk-tsked young Adam Kaye's bare (yet oddly hairy. and knobby.) knees. Dan, Loren, and Adam were not yet registered for this fully preregistered race, but I had a feeling that this really wouldn't be a problem (sure enough, there were about fifteen no shows). About half way to Calumet, Sophia got a flat, so we swapped wheels and split the pack, with the non-preregistered guys continuing on with her. Francisco, Chase, Loren, and I arrived a few minutes later.
As we slowly circled the park clockwise and scanned the horizon, I began to wonder whether the finish would be on the back stretch of this, our weekly practice course. But after circling the entire loop, we found some riders congregating, and several Half Acre guys furiously sweeping and scooping: working hard! The lights on much of the original course were not working, we were told, and so the course had been changed -- to a smaller and tighter loop on the south side of the park. So, strike one for the City That Works -- but no matter. This looked to be an equally safe and fun loop, if slightly unfamiliar.
As the guys got registered, Sophia and I warmed up and checked the wind. As expected, it was coming directly off of the lake, from the southeast. This meant that the back stretch of the course would be very fast, especially heading into the soft double corner leading into the finish line. We spent several laps practicing the ideal echelon, before she was called to the start.
The women's field was small, but not distressingly so, at six riders. I pointed out masters rider Cathy Frampton and new Bouledogue tout noir rider Jannette Rho as threats, but at this point Sophia was in race mode, and probably didn't hear much. The first couple of laps were a bit of a Sunday stroll, with Rho pulling on both straightaway sections. A couple of the riders appeared to have difficulty holding wheels, so on the third lap, I asked Sophia to gun it. And she did!
Rho, Frampton, and Sophia gapped the other riders and it was pretty clear that this would be a three woman race. Frampton smartly refused to work, with Rho still doing most of the work. Though inexperienced, it was pretty clear that she was easily the strongest of the bunch and probably could have broken away. But thankfully, she didn't. With two laps to go, I urged Sophia on one more time, if only to drop Frampton and hope for the best against Rho. She did surge, but it wasn't enough, as both riders stayed on her wheel. On the last lap, Rho jumped early with a half lap to go. Sophia struggled to catch her wheel, and finally did, going into the last two turns -- but it wasn't enough. Rho won by three bike lengths. I don't remember watching such an exciting six woman crit before!
And now it was getting pretty dark. Julie from Half Acre came by and informed me that, well, some of the lights on *this* course appeared to be out as well. Hm, The City That Works... but the show must go on, especially as there were fifty anxious young riders ready to race. Dan, Adam, Rory, Francisco, Loren, and Liam were warmed up and oranged up and looking quite fierce. (Though I was a bit worried about Liam, who decided to eat a pound of pasta ten minutes before race time.)
Riders were called to the line, and, in usual Team TATI fashion -- our guys hemmed and hawed, and were boxed out and separated immediately. Only Dan made it across the street to take the poll position -- front row, out of the wind. Oh, well. Something to work on... I'd noted earlier to the guys how the field was stacked with track riders, many of whom they had never seen. These were experienced riders with superior tactical skills and sprinting ability, so we'd need to really rely on team tactics to have any chance of placing well. Most notable were the fellow on the LOOK from Beer'd, the Yojimbo's rider, and Avi+Jeff from Cuttin' Crew. Sure enough, these four riders looked to push the pace early, stringing out the field and dropping several riders on the first two laps. From there, the pace settled in. As instructed, Adam searched out Dan -- and tucked right behind him for the remainder of the race. Rory, Loren, and Francisco settled into a slower pace, and privately worked into the wind. Liam looked to be having a bit of fun, choosing to slowly circle the pack: moving from off the front out of the double corner to slightly off the back (and out of the wind) on the finishing stretch.
Ten minutes in, it was very dark, and judging by the mediocre cornering abilities of most of the riders, the consensus was to shorten the race from 45 to 30 minutes: a wise choice. Unfortunately for us, this played right into the sprinter's hands... and we weren't able to push the pace for the latter half of the race as planned. As soon as the judges made this determination, however, I waved Liam to the front (or perhaps in typical Liam fashion, he sensed the time was right, and decided to pull the entire pack on his own). Two hard laps dropped a few more riders, winnowing the field now to fewer than twenty.
The problem at this point was lapped riders, many of whom did not understand the importance of moving to the right. On the bell lap, Team TATI looked great. Dan, Liam, and Adam were lined up around eighth wheel, on the inside line. But the Beer'd and Yojimbo's riders just looked way too strong -- and sure enough, the two of them plus Cuttin' Crew Jeff attacked hard out of the windy SE corner. Dan and Liam reacted immediately, with Liam nearly bridging up coming into the final corners. Dan swung around, with Adam hot on his wheel. With thirty meters to go, our three were actually gaining on the sprinters, but it was too late. A swift wave of orange past the line, and it was over.
See you all tonight. I'll keep my fingers crossed that we see a few more streetlights come on, but I won't be holding my breath.
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