The first race of the NashvilleCyclist criterium series was last night. Tim Hall is putting this race series on for the 6th season, and they get better every year. The course is in downtown Nashville at LP Field (where the Titans play) on a 2km course set up with 8 turns. It’s not a technical crit, but it has enough turns to be fun in a group.
Cat 5s went off hard and chaotic, and the cornering skills were such that if you were in the middle of the pack around the first two corners you were already way behind due to the yo-yo. I had a rough start, so that was where I was, but I took it easy and made up a few positions around each turn (come on guys, where were you when I was teaching that cornering class yesterday?).
End of lap 2 saw the first two of three crashes. One when a rider cut across my teammates line and clipped his wheel. Boom. Emergency braking to avoid running over teammate. Lost a ton of position. Second crash happened at the same time, but I didn’t see much other than the thud of a helmet on the ground. Both riders took their free lap and jumped back in.
My avoidance maneuver kept me upright so I didn’t get to cash in a skin-ticket for a free lap. The rest of the race was a cat and mouse game where I would pick a wheel half a lap ahead, catch it before the upwind back stretch so I could sit on it for 200 yards, then sprint around on corners 7and 8 onto the downwind finishing stretch. Lather, rinse, repeat. Made up at least ten positions, but they were too spread out from the main field to catch back on. No points for me tonight. Immediately after finishing, I could feel the muscle soreness kick back in from Monday nigh’s weightlifting session in the gym. I’m glad it stayed away during the race at least.
That cornering class I mentioned was a series of clinics run by Les Wooldridge (of the Harpeth Racing Team, and also VP of the Harpeth Bike Club). Les put me in charge of the cornering class. I set up cones to show entry points, apexes, and exit points on a couple of different types of corners. We went through things from the ground up; all the way from pedal position to countersteering, line selection, and body position. By the time the class was over they were making smooth turns at speed with nary a line change through the curve.
We had another group working on contact drills at the same time. After both groups had been through the classes we split into groups and worked on riding a smooth paceline around the racetrack at the Nashville Fairgrounds (the Pseudodrome).
It was cool to watch the progression from beginner rider to more confident Bicycle Pilot. it’s also amazing to think how much of those skills I take for granted. Even as a relative beginner I know that the time spent working on riding technique has paid huge dividends in safety and smoothness in a pack or race situation. Last night’s crit race really showed that. Many of the riders would brake hard before a corner, sacrificing a ton of hard-earned momentum and position in order to go through the corner at a speed that they felt comfortable with. I would set my entry speed early, apex the corner with enough room for error, and sail right past them without touching the brakes.
It’s a crazy packed week this week. Cornering clinic, Crit race, tonight I’m going to check out the race loop at Hamilton Creek on the mountain bike (more about that later this week), then on Friday we head up to Kentucky for the Horsey Hundred on Saturday, then right back to Nashville for the Gatorade Criterium that Harpeth Racing is putting on. Hope my legs hold out!
Finally, something cool. I’m going to have to build some of these. Austin from Green Fleet Messengers pointed them out, and I definitely have some tubes that can’t be repaired. Click pic or here for full post
Bicycle tubes turned into shelving
