I guess this is probably the most appropriate place to add some details of my recent first ‘crits’.
I’ve now done a couple of the events at Abingdon Airfield, I think Closed Circuit is probably a better description than a crit as it’s 2 very long and wide straights, one 180 degree turn, the other end has two 90 degree corners with a short straight between them.
I entered Cat 4, obviously, and along with about half the other people there it was my first time. Think there were about 30 of us.
Race 1: Had absolutely no idea what to expect. Lined up towards the back, like a complete newbie, and off we went. I don’t recall being in too much trouble, but had to do pretty big digs after every corner. In the straights in generally settled down to a very sedate pace.
I occasionally moved to the middle of the pack, but never tried to get to the front. I was quite a wussy on the corners and did tend to drop back. There were often 4 bikes wide on the corners and brakes were being applied which tended to shoot people out wide. I wasn’t that confident in my own cornering but was even less confident in the cornering of others!
As that laps wore on I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it up, I’ve not done much endurance recently, but before long we had the 3 laps to go warning. Then a couple of guys went down just in front of me coming out of a corner. I thought I was a goner, couldn’t see how I was going to avoid them, but slammed on the brakes and turned, and somehow I did. But as I result I pretty much completely halted and was on the grass at the side of the track, the pack was rapidly advancing down the road. I gave chase, but was completely alone and made no progress they gradually pulled away.
I was pushing 600W for a few hundred metres before calling it a day, I averaged almost 60W higher for that lap, but went 30 seconds slower (it was roughly 4 mins per lap), which gives you an idea of the benefit of the draft.
As I came round to complete the lap marshals were waving us to slow down, someone from the E123 race had gone down just before the finish line, and they seemed in a bad way. Slowly made it round another lap by myself until joined by someone else who’d also got caught behind the crash. As we approached the finish line I could see marshals and I wasn’t sure if they would let us start the final lap as we were obviously not in contention (though not lapped), but it turns out they had stopped everyone.
A ambulance had been called and we waited for that to come and go, I think I heard they chap had a broken jaw. After almost half an hour they offered us a 2 lap restart. 20 joined the restart, and we did 1.5 pretty sedate laps. Despite the rest my legs were shot. Once I’ve gone into the red I don’t recover quickly. Rolled over the line in 14th.
Race 2: Not put off by the events in the first race, I was back again last Saturday. The moved the start/finish line, I think as the result of the crash last week. This time I was in trouble from the start, really struggled to stay on the back of the pack the first 2 laps. Think I was caught a bit off guard, the first 5km were 2km/h quicker than last week (~43km/h).
After that I got into more of a rhythm and wasn’t quite as close to being dropped, but it never felt like it was far from happening. It was a slightly bigger field that last week and I never left the back third. I was extremely cautious in the corners, telling myself it was other peoples cornering I was concerned about. Lots of squealing of of brakes. I did actually feel a little more confident in my own cornering. I could tell I was burning a lot of matches by staying where I was, often losing the wheel, but didn’t (/couldn’t) do anything about it.
The race went on without incident and I stayed with them until the last corner, but was left for dead in the sprint. Finished 33/38, everyone who finished behind me was lapped.
Going to be there again this Saturday. Need to try and be braver and stay further up the pack and see if I can save some matches for the end.
There was a Zoom meeting on the Moredon cycling centre it last night and I received some unofficial updates via the clubs racing chat group (which I was added to for doing these crits). It’s been delayed, looking like summer 2022. I believe it when I see it. Swindon seems to have quite a few plans that don’t materialise (town wide wifi, snow dome, etc.).