Christopher Rowley: Rochester Twilight Criterium

It has been a while since my last update. My racing has had it's up's and down's with a highlight 5th in Buffalo in the mens 1/2 field. I also finally pulled off a 45km/h time trial at the Hamilton cycling club's Indian trail 14.6km course. That has been a goal of mine for a few years, so it was amazing to finally check that off.

This past weekend I went to Rochester to race their Twilight Criterium in the 2/3 field. I went into this having not finished a crit this year. Every time I have been pulled, so I wanted to change that. There was forecasted thunderstorms for the day, and we could tell the weather network was right for a change as we drove into Rochester. When we got there, it was raining and we had time to pre-ride the course before the races started for the day. There was lots of crosswalks painted on the roads and sewer grates, which meant you had to be careful in the corners or be ready to slide out.

This was what the sky looked like about 10mins from Rochester. It was beautiful and sunny in the other direction...

Proof that I didn't spend the whole race at the back!

I am a poor starter, so I did a nice long warm up hoping it would help. Unfortunately it didn't do too much for me as once the race started, it took me a few minutes to have my legs fire on all cylinders. This doesn't go well for criteriums as it brought me to the back of the peloton, and I was doing too much work getting the back end of the accordion around the corners. People started to drop, and I was stuck behind them and wasn't able to bridge the gap. I chased hard for a couple laps and finally caught back on. I did the smart thing and moved up immediately. With the next surge in pace though I found myself back at the back of the peloton. The effort required to get back into the pack killed my legs.

I was also being a little too cautious perhaps in the painted, wet corners. The only time the paced slowed allowing for pacing would require a more sketchy line through the corners and I wasn't feeling brave enough to take on the challenge. In the last few laps, there were 2 crashes in the final corner before the start/finish line as I assume people were trying to take these sketchy lines to move up. At least being at the back has its perks, as I was able to ride through the crashes without being brought down. I hung on to the pack for the finish and ended up 16th of 43 starters. Teammate Tanner Cookson rode a great race, and finished 5th. One day I might be able to pull something like that off. At least I got a killer workout and built some more confidence moving forwards to Provincials and Green Mountain stage race coming up.

This was the first time I stayed and watched other races. The womens Pro1/2 and mens Pro1 races were after mine. Rochester sure knew how to put on a killer event. The course made for lots of exciting places to watch. The food truck rodeo was a great addition, providing lots of delicious food and provides something for visitors that maybe don't care about cycling to much (anyone got that special someone in their life that you drag to races? Here they too can be happy!). Both races provided lots of excitement, and it was crazy to watch the speeds the men were taking the corners at. I have some more confidence to build up before I can tackle that field!