Land Park Crit

Spring has arrived, the clocks have moved forward, the days are longer and we're finally getting wintry wet weather.  All last week we were drenched, which made for a great excuse to recover and do very little riding.  Also on the schedule was Land Park Crit.  This is a local favorite in south Sacramento and I've been meaning to try it out.

Of course, since I've grown accustomed to the sun and warmth, the rain made me nervous and I began to feel like I'd never ridden in wet conditions before.  So what did I do?  Did I shout "HTFU!!" at my legs and leave it at that?  Did I set my face in steely determination toward Land Park?  I did what any hardcore amateur racer would do... I checked with my friends to see if they were wussing out.  Thusly, I began the texting equivalent of a group of ladies deciding to go to the restroom together.  Here's what it would have looked like if technology hadn't stood between us:

Ryan, Ryan and Ryan discussing the merits of Crit racing in the rain

As it turned out we were too late to get a refund, so the decision was made for us.  Wait and see.  And a glorious day it was.  The rain poured all Friday night but Saturday morning cleared up nicely.  Still cloudy and cold, but no storms.

The race was pretty fun.  We had a full field and Malm spent the first half of the race getting into every conceivable breakaway.  In his own words, "The first 20 minutes were fun."  I swore one of the breaks was going to work out.  There were about 7 guys with every team represented.  Some Rio Strada cat didn't realize this and I had to yell at him to not chase his own guy.  A group of us set a false tempo, but in typical fashion, there were enough guys who didn't want to let anything go.

Malm in one of his 18 breakaway attempts.

Inspired by Malm's persistence I also attempted to get off the front.  Here's an image of me "winning".

Yes, the announcer referred to me as "white leggings guy"
Since this is so distinctive, I should forgo pinning my # in the future.

Clearly this evidence of my victory was not convincing to the officials, who decided to count my position on the final lap instead.  This whole "laps" thing escapes me.

So it seemed we'd be headed for a group sprint.  Malm found me and said we should get Odell up front.  I never found him, but he found me, and being the helpful lieutenant I am, I subsequently latched onto his wheel.  Going into the final S turn there was a crash that I narrowly escaped, but Malm got caught behind it.  The finish was fast and open with Odell snagging 5th (he also won an earlier prime).

Here's a video my dad took.  You can see Odell (and me a little later) along the left side of the shot.