The Herman Miller Brickyard Criterium was the first criterium on my race schedule this year. I’ve placed in the top ten at least twice in the years that I have raced it.
The venue is great. It’s an almost 1-mile circuit around the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. The one thing I don’t like about this crit is the combination of categories. For the past few years, cat 3 and cat 4 have been combined. This presented for a hard race. Last year I finished 28th or 29th, but was the 4th place finisher in cat 4.
The day started out cool and rainy in Battle Creek but as I continued the drive to Grand Rapids the rain stopped, the skies cleared, and the temps began to rise. It was a beautiful day for racing.
The race was scheduled for 50 minutes and three laps. That’s almost an hour at full on race mode, which is becoming increasingly difficult now that my race age is 50, and the majority of the cat 4 field is composed of much younger riders. My strategy was to hang with the lack as much as possible.
The race was fast, fast, fast right from the start. For almost 20 minutes I was able to hang on, but after a prime lap, I could not keep up with the acceleration. I wasn’t the only one dropped, and because we were out of contention, we were pulled from the race. While frustrating, it is for the safety of the remaining riders not to have slower riders on the course, especially through the corners.
I’ll work on my intervals for the next two weeks to prepare for a single category criterium in Kalamazoo July 11.
Final results: 44 out of a field of over 50. Disappointing, but not totally unexpected for my advancing years.