Well the crit season has started for me, a little late due to weather and been underdone for the first few races. But better to start with a bang hey?
Riding for Team Kosdown is more than just a jersey and set of knicks. It gives you confidence and direction not only with racing but training also, which to be honest is a massive part of any success. Coburg CC run their weekly crits in Campbellfield just up the road from my house, it’s a perfect 20k warm up ride there, and gives me enough time to mentally prepare for the 60min plus 3 laps of pain I’m about to endure, or on my good days pain I will enjoy inflicting on others.
Normally I’m riding to an event with team mate Stephen, but this time I had Bike n Beans tech guru Seton along for the ride, I tried to convince him to race, he didn’t this time. But he has around 15 more chances before end of season...
After rego and general chin wag session (well getting paid out for rolling up in skin suit Haha) Kosy offered his experience which is so valuable to the young guys and not so young ones like me. Even though I have had a fairly decent winter program I have only raced two A grade open crits, let alone seriously thought about gunning for the win.
First lap under control, then full gas! The second lap of the race was also the second fastest lap of the race. The heart rate spiked then settled once the nerves were burnt off. There were a few attacks, but none ever looked like staying away more than a few hundred meters. Kosy went off the front (no surprises there...) and had a few passengers that started to work once they saw the gap he gave them. 3 to go and one of the many young guns in our team Sam had some watts he wanted to burn and attacked to bridge the gap, I quickly jumped on. It only took half a lap to pull it back and then we had 3 fair evaders not prepared to work with us. The bell lap; everyone was together and it was clearly going to be a bunch sprint. A few sneaky surges lead to nothing, and then I somehow got boxed in, Rookie move on my behalf! I couldn’t get out and could only see more and more riders in front of me. Just on the last turn another of our young chargers Luca opened a gap for me. I’ll say I panicked a bit as the front row of riders was 7 wide and I was second row deep, the slightest gap appeared well I thought it did. After some bump and run action I was in the front row and just before anyone could come over and pinch me off I hit the gas and started driving the 11. Got to be honest it was good to see the shadow disappear from behind me, I maxed out at just under 72kph and went well into my red zone at 204bpm. But more importantly Team Kosdown won and Luca got up for third!
I can tick another box on my “to do” list for cycling, but rest assured there are plenty of empty boxes still to be ticked!
Huge thanks to all the crew at Team Kosdown, Bike n Bean, and of course Specialized for the S-Works Venge
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