Sunny King Criterium and Foothills Road Race reports

Josiah ready to race the kids race and me ready to warm-up for the pro race
Sunny King Criterium
This is a tough criterium for smaller guys like me – the hill on the course isn’t steep enough to take advantage of power to weight ratio. Similarly, the downhill is shallow enough that you have to work to keep the wheel in front of you. Making it even worse this year was a stiff headwind on the downhill and strong tailwind on the uphill. Still, this is one of my favorite crits because it is practically a home race (Anniston is about an hour away from my home in Birmingham). Chad Andrews (totalcyclist) does a great job of announcing the crit and getting the crowd pumped up so the energy in the air is palpable.

Kenda Pro Cycling dominated this third stop on the National Criterium Calendar pretty much from start to finish. Phil Gaimon (Kenda) got away on the first or second lap with an Exergy rider. Eventually Phil dropped the Exergy rider and solidered on alone. He swept up three primes in the process and was away for a lot of laps. Mountain Khakis did a lot of the chasing, and the pace was steadier and a bit easier than previous years. Still, I was struggling a bit because I was too far back in the field and the slingshot effect of this course was particularly bad coming out of turn 4 with a bit of a crosswind before the tailwind up the hill. So basically the guys at the front of the pack were flying up the hill with a tailwind while those at the back were still trying to accelerate out of the corner with a nasty crosswind.

My wife observed that the back of the race was getting closer and closer to me – i.e., I was maintaining my position but more and more people behind me were getting gapped off or dropping out. Eventually, though, I was able to move up to maybe the front third of what was left of the field. With 10 laps to go, I worked hard to maintain my position. With two or three laps to go (I lost count) I noticed that I was maybe in the top 40. Kenda, Mountain Khakis, and Exergy were all battling with their leadout trains. I knew that riders from the train would be peeling off when their turn was done so I figured I was pretty good to move up into the top 30 by the end. Our field was strung out single file flying around the course. I would be looking intently at the wheel in front of me to stay as close as possible when out of the corner of my eye a rider coming off the front. It was amazing to see them rocketing backwards as we went by at maybe 20mph faster than they were going with their job for the day done.

On the last lap, unfortunately, people immediately in front of me also started giving up. I had to come around several riders who lost the wheel in front of them. I ended up catching a few more riders in the final sprint to finish 26th. I was pleased to finish in the top 30 in a really hard race. Up ahead of me, Isaac Howe (Kenda) came out of the final corner 2nd wheel and took the sprint for the win.

By the end of the race the temp had dropped down into the 50s with a howling wind – it was very cold on the “cool-down” lap. This was Kristine and Josiah watching the race:

Josiah and Kristine bundled up watching the race.

Sunny King Criterium data

			Power (watts)
Lap	Time	Mile	Avg	Max	HR	Spd (mph)
1	01:38	0.7	367	897	159	25.4
2	01:28	0.7	317	948	173	28.3
3	01:28	0.7	279	839	173	27.9
4	01:28	0.7	236	767	172	27.8
5	01:27	0.7	282	970	174	28.6
6	01:27	0.7	316	900	177	28
7	01:27	0.7	272	855	179	28.3
8	01:26	0.7	303	1013	180	28.6
9	01:28	0.7	238	934	179	28
10	01:30	0.7	268	822	175	27.5
11	01:30	0.7	253	917	176	27.2
12	01:34	0.7	260	804	176	26.3
13	01:29	0.7	271	820	177	27.6
14	01:29	0.7	282	928	180	27.8
15	01:29	0.7	265	814	177	27.5
16	01:27	0.7	289	853	177	28
17	01:28	0.7	246	780	179	27.8
18	01:31	0.7	276	879	175	26.9
19	01:31	0.7	256	874	174	26.9
20	01:26	0.7	326	935	180	28.5
21	01:28	0.7	260	884	180	28.3
22	01:28	0.7	252	945	176	27.8
23	01:30	0.7	251	717	175	27.6
24	01:30	0.7	256	807	177	27
25	01:28	0.7	246	852	177	27.7
26	01:28	0.7	289	916	178	28
27	01:26	0.7	291	872	179	28.8
28	01:26	0.7	295	827	179	28.5
29	01:30	0.7	250	870	178	27.6
30	01:34	0.7	272	882	174	27.4
31	01:28	0.7	274	898	175	28.2
32	01:29	0.7	249	910	176	27.5
33	01:31	0.7	250	679	176	27
34	01:32	0.7	252	735	172	26.6
35	01:34	0.7	233	821	170	26.5
36	01:28	0.7	265	897	175	27.8
37	01:34	0.7	240	869	169	26.5
38	01:31	0.7	247	855	171	27
39	01:28	0.7	274	896	174	28.2
40	01:28	0.7	260	657	175	28
41	01:34	0.7	258	789	171	26.2
42	01:27	0.7	261	893	175	28.1
43	01:28	0.7	276	900	176	27.9
44	01:29	0.7	259	812	174	27.6
45	01:31	0.7	242	900	174	27
46	01:29	0.7	251	825	174	27.7
47	01:29	0.7	242	793	175	27.8
48	01:32	0.7	247	744	171	26.7
49	01:26	0.7	266	720	176	28.6
50	01:29	0.7	276	880	176	27.7
51	01:29	0.7	238	744	178	28
52	01:32	0.7	294	873	179	26.9
53	01:31	0.7	269	819	178	27.1
54	01:33	0.7	253	825	178	26.8
55	01:30	0.7	246	788	174	27.4
56	01:28	0.7	277	791	177	28
57	01:26	0.7	278	886	179	29
58	01:25	0.7	264	965	177	29
59	01:24	0.7	322	867	181	29.6
60	01:23	0.7	330	744	185	29.6

Heartrate summary – look at all the time in zone 5!

Annotated Sunny King pro criterium heartrate/power plot. Power shown has 30second smoothing filter applied (click to enlarge)

Foothills Road Race
This was my “target” race for the weekend – I was hoping to be in the top 10. I ended up missing an early move and a later move. So on the third of four Cat 4 climbs of the day, I attacked and got away solo chasing a group of about 10 riders up the road with all major teams represented. I was fighting a head/crosswind early on, but then had a nice tail/crosswind until late in the race. I kept the field completely out of sight for a long time. Once I made the left turn onto the rougher road to start heading towards the final climb, I was now faced with a strong head/crosswind again. I quickly lost time, and the field caught me at the base of the last climb. I gave it one more burst to try and stay with the group over the top, but even with a friendly push from fellow Alabamian Mike Olheiser (Competitive Cyclist) I couldn’t keep up. My legs were done. I ended up coming in with a small group a couple minutes back of the field sprint.

Strava map and statistics for my nearly 30 mile solo chase effort (click to enlarge)