Madeira Centennial Criterium race report

I am updating….had no idea I had quads!!

Picture by Jeff Jakucyk.

I promised a race report so here ya go. It’s not gonna be like Snake’s posts or anything. This is gonna be Judi’s Classy Cat 4 MY VERY FIRST CRIT race report, ok? Don’t make fun.

The Madeira Centennial Criterium was the opening race of a huge bike racing weekend in Cincinnati. Saturday was the Hyde Park Blast and today the Tour Of Grandview.

My plan was to race Friday’s crit. Mitch Graham, the race promoter, comped my race entry for Friday and I helped him set up the course. It was HOT and and HUMID and me and a bunch of guys were walking around Miami ave, dragging barricades, cones and haystacks around. We were all sweating our fucking asses off. Everybody was pretty much drenched, and I was constantly on the search for more water.

Working the race was fun, and it kind of kept me from freaking too bad. I did worry that I wouldn’t have time to ride the course because the Cat 5 men were going off at 5pm and we were still running around with haystacks at 4:45pm.

After the races started, my volunteer duties were over, and I started the freaking out part. I was running back and forth between the reg’ table and my car about 50xs. My friends were showing up, texting, calling, my fucking MOM came – She NEVER watches me race – EVER….and from then on it was pretty much chaos chaos chaos.

Come on. Think back to YOUR first criterium. A USA crit, for GOD’s SAKE’s!!! How nervous were you?

I was freaking.

Dominic was not with me either which sucked so fucking bad. He could not get off work. It was the first race he’s missed (not counting the triathlons where he slept in the car).

Aaron Hubbell, my cat 1 buddy from Indy, called me when he got in and we rode the course together in between races. What a great guy you are Aaron! THANK YOU! He took me through the turns and told me how to take each corner.

Finally the women were lining up. My teammate rolled up and introduced herself nervously. I found out later she was a cat 1 racer on the NRC team. The 1/2/3’s were all lined up and then they started the call ups (in reg entry order) for the 4’s. They called my name and I rode around to the start. The announcer was talking but I couldn’t hear. I wasn’t listening, I couldn’t hear, my heart was thumping and there was vomit in my throat.

The whistle blew and we were off. I held onto the 2nd half the pack and we were riding really fast, taking the corners, and people were screaming my name all over the place, it was fucking awesome!

This picture is pretty much the summary of my race. (Photo courtesy of Debbie Baker)

There were 4 of us. I was trying like a mother fucker to shake those girls. They worked as a team and sucked my wheel for a while. I heard OB screaming at me to “let those ladies work a little” but in my head I just wanted to fucking shake them. I kept looking back and they were still there.

Then it got really confusing. They yelled ONE LAP TO GO and a guy on a motorcycle rolled up and screamed at us ONE MORE LAP, YOUR GROUP HAS ONE MORE LAP and then of course my legs were fried and the girls behind me took a sprint in front and tried to shake me and I was lagging a little behind, and then we passed the finish line and they said it again ONE LAP TO GO and little girl behind me unclipped and everyone was confused (I know that was a really long run-on sentence). The other two girls kept riding so I did too.

Anyways, I came in 4th, out of 9 cat 4 women. I’ll take it, thank you.

Crits are probably my favorite type of racing next to CX. I have to get better at this somehow. I want to be able to hold onto the pack. That shit was fun.