Chicago Criterium

We went round in circles and XXX didn’t win.

It’s a bit sad when the highlight of your day is the warmup, but that’s how it turned out at the Chicago Criterium on Sunday.

Feeling completely off this weekend. Should have bagged the race but I already paid. Lack of sleep, a three hour drive, plus the stress of looking for parking meant that my head just wasn’t in it. Great venue in downtown, super well-organised, smooth registration, races started on time, pleasant surroundings.

Found a nice shady spot to set up the rollers, with a view of the course to watch the cat 3s going round and a light pleasant breeze to keep things cooler I couldn’t have asked for much more. Spinning away I figured out one of the bonuses of the location - Let’s just say that the average eye candy in Grant Park is quite a step above your average crit – most pleasant.

After the most thorough warm-up I’ve ever done it was time to line up with the other 75 4/5 masters racers. Lots of Beverly Bike, Tower Racing and more XXXers than you could shake a chamois at.

With no warm-up lap I didn’t really know what to expect. The pack took off quickly, and with no real zip in my legs I quickly found myself at the back. As is typical in Midwest crits, the mentality is to accelerate out of every corner, slow up on the straights and hammer it over the leg-sapping hump on Balbo. I like hills but I found myself getting gapped each time over that hump and having to chase on. Smooth it was not.

I just concentrated on finding the right lines and conserving momentum through the corners. The course was much rougher than I expected, apart from the abundant manholes there were a lot of cracks and uneven transitions that weren’t immediately obvious. Even my relatively conservative PSI was a bit high and my rear wheel did jump a couple of times during the race.

The hazards of hanging at the back are well known. Towards the end of lap 2 about 10 guys started feeling the pace and dropped off. I was slow to react and had to chase for nearly a full lap to catch on. Still feeling poorly but reasonably happy that I did have the power to catch on. Then the next hazard of riding at the back. A guy’s wheel skips on a manhole into turn 5 and he spontaneously wrecks just in front of me. Between braking and a nice rear wheel skid I manage to avoid hitting him, but by the time I clip back in the pack is well gone. I get no love from the pit official and that’s it – my race is over. My own fault for hanging at the back.

I get together with the two other guys in the incident (nobody injured) and we roll a few laps, me taking most of the pulls, until the pack comes around again. Hop on to the back and have no problem hanging. They have slowed down considerably and the second half of the race is slow, uneventful and boring. None of the teams are showing any initiative and solo riders have given up trying to push the pace.

As we hit 30 minutes some people are starting to get a little tired. A BBVP rider tries to move up in the turn lane on Michigan ave but only succeeds in getting boxed in when the road narrows, luckily a SCW rider anticipates the danger and yells out to everybody to slow up; BBVP gets back in safely, good riding SCW!. 1.5 laps to go and the pace ups slightly, guys are finally falling back on the hump – as we hit the bell a line of Tower racing riders who had been hanging near the back punch it on the straightaway in an effort to drag their guy to the front, I’m not sure if they managed to make it. Around turns 1 and 2 and nothing much happens, plenty of room to move up on the Congress curve, we hit Balbo and the back of the pack implodes, guys are dropping off like flies on the hump; the final turn and no-one has dared to make a move, I’m just motoring along keeping up with the pace and making sure not to get involved in the sprint. It was the tamest field sprint I have seen (see the pic), one guy goes off and wins by a couple of bike lengths, the rest seem scared to bust a move and about 30 guys hit the line within a few yards of each other. Seems like a lot of riders hit a brick wall and collapse, I had to brake several times so as not to get involved in the sprint, I’m still mid-pack, but a lap behind.

We roll around for a cool down, exchanging war stories. I look down and realize that I’ve done the whole race in my little chainring. Great to see Psimet from Bike Heaven get a good result. XXX only managed one guy in the top 15 – seem to be losing their mojo - highly unusual. It was a surprisingly weak 75 rider field – not many real sprinters in there and PowerBar Ben with his bazillion upgrade points didn’t even put in an appearance to ride away from the field. Still not sure about why Cat 4 riders are so obsessed with going hard on the slow bits and slow on the fast bits, but if you really want to blow yourself up then go ahead.

A pity about the lost lap, but I never really got my head into the race so it was probably for the best. I’m not sure why this race and all the other races I saw were so tame and lacked much initiative. The course isn’t technical but had enough features to sap the legs and repay skilful cornering, the wind even changed a few times and I sometimes had difficulty catching the draft. Seems like many of the teams negated each other and nobdy wanted to take any risks with friends and family watching., tired legs from superweek may have been another factor.

My last crit of the year. Roll on CX season.

Anyway, a super experience to race in the heart of downtown in such a well-organised event. Glad to be able to support it and I hope it’ll be back next year.