Smoketown Crit

Submitted by Ross Nickerson - 6/18/2024

4/5 & 3/4

I raced both the 4/5 and 3/4 at the Smoketown Airport on Saturday. This was my first time ever doing two races in one day, with just over two hours in between races. For those of you that haven't been there, the course (actually on the runway!) was a sort of oval that was fatter on the top end (turns 1, 2, and 3) with a U-turn down at the bottom at the end of the slightly downhill back straight that you could still take at very high speed. So the start finish was on a slight uphill.

The 4/5 race was first, with 40 racers. This was only supposed to be a 30 minute race (it ended up being 35 minutes) so I was expecting it to be pretty full gas right from the start, but that didn't really end up happening. The first two laps were pretty quick but then the pace slowed quite a bit for the next five laps or so. There were a couple of solo moves that went off the front which no one really chased, but the group ended up closing them down without really working too hard. I had decided by mid-race that there wasn't much chance of a breakaway actually going away so I tried to conserve energy for the bunch sprint

There was one sort of moderately quick lap about 10 miles in, but besides that, the pace never really picked up until the last lap, and even then, not really until we'd exited the final turn. I moved up to second wheel towards the end of the long downhill straight, which in hindsight was maybe a little too far up. I sat on the leader but just slightly off to his left and paid very careful attention to my left hand side for riders launching their sprints to make sure I did not get boxed in.

The first guy to open up his sprint was quite a bit to my left so I had plenty of space. Six guys went past me pretty quickly, and I was mashing as hard as I could to try to match their speed as well as get on somebody's wheel as we all launched with more than 400 meters to go. I just couldn't match the surge in pace, but perhaps started closing down the gaps as we approached the line. Ended up 7th, just enough to get the single point I need to upgrade to Cat 3! I clearly don't have the sprint to really win a bunch sprint, but it does seem that my ~1 minute power is relatively pretty good

I had a banana, a carb drink, a coffee, and a pastry pretty much as quickly as I could after the first race. I didn't really feel like the first race took a whole lot out of me, but I was very uncertain as to how I would respond in the second race.

The 3/4 was 20 miles and only had 23 racers, at least half of whom had done the 4/5 race with me. The race started a little more surge-y than the 4/5 did, but it wasn't crazy fast. I tried to stay near the front as I expected there would actually be some decent moves and a break might get established. After about 8 laps, a small group of us found that we had a small gap - I was actually the one that noticed, and I told the rest of the guys if they wanted to go and work, we should go now, and we did. It wasn't really a 100% commitment move though, and we were brought back after about a lap.

The pace was really slow for the next two laps, and then at ~10 laps in, the same guys that had just been in the little break really put the hammer down and I went all-in to go with them. So it was a 4 man break and these guys were really strong. I could hardly stay on their wheels, let alone contribute much when it was my turn to pull, but I did my best for a few laps. Eventually one of them said "dude you need to pull harder than that" after I pulled off from my short turn but there was no way that was going to happen. I managed to stay with them for 4 laps and then just could not survive up the little hill on the finishing straight, so I fell back to the main group. 

A small chase group got away a few laps later and I tried my best to bridge across to them but couldn't quite make it. So again I returned to the main group and just tried to hang on til the finish as I was completely cooked. Ended up 17th, but it was a great learning experience doing two races and being in a break with guys much stronger than me

Turns out the same guy won both the 4/5 with a huge sprint and the 3/4 as part of the 4 man break I was in, and then won the 3/4 at Race Ave the next day. Damn...