BTR Park Criterium in Kalamazoo

Today was the BTR Park Criterium in good 'ol Kalamazoo. I picked up Luke at his house and we carpooled out to the race. I was surprisingly not very nervous as I thought I would be for my first "fast" race in the Pro-1-2-3 field. When we got there, I ate a bagel and did a quick 20-minute warm up before the start. I regretted eating that bagel soon into the race because I felt like it was going to come back up.

The first four laps of the race were pretty fast, which was a good change from the 3s which seem to have a more relaxed attitude until someone attacks. A few small breaks went, but none got farther than a few seconds up the road before the field reeled them back in. Then a three-man break got about 10 seconds on the field. I didn't think much of it, and I just tried to stay in the top 10 in the field. Rider by rider, however, the break began to grow as small groups and solo riders bridged the gap. The next thing I knew, the breakaway had 13 people in it and 30 seconds on the field. At that time I was pretty much screwed - all the fast people were up the road, and all the major teams were represented in the break. This meant that nobody in the field was willing to do any work. That got really frustrating because a fast race turned into a slow train ride.

I tried doing some work on the front of the pack to pick up the pace, but nothing would stick. We probably didn't have any chance at that point of catching the break, but I wasn't worried - I was just excited that Luke had made the break. He had a good chance of pulling off a win, given the size and dynamic of the break. Unfortunately as we neared the start / finish on one of our laps, Luke came drifting back down the road. Evidently, he wasn't feeling really good and didn't have the desire to ride in the break.

The break did end up making it away, with Rob Dascewaaglidhsajh taking the win, with Danny Klein in second and Tim Finkle in 8th (finally a decent Wolverine finish!).

Overall, it was a good experience to race with a faster group. I finally got a reply from Paul Alman, and unfortunately I'm still a 3 (really frustrating), so that means I'll have to do some more slow races. At least that means I'll be able to gun for a win at Downer's Grove in the 3s.