It has been said that to win the twilight you need luck, skill and strength. Here is how I fared in each.
Luck
Apparently it’s important to line up in the front. So much so that people where already lining up at 6:10. The OBRA Official moved the group along which started a game of cat and mouse. People would race around then approach the start attempting to stop but would get chased off by the official. Some then started lining up 30 yards away thinking they would be safe thee. Soon the street almost blocked other than a thin corridor which was also slowly filling up. The official turned back and walked towards the front the mass followed her…very funny. Anyhow I was in about the third row back dead center. A very unlucky place to be in my opinion.
At the start the guy just to my left in front of me couldn’t clip in…unlucky. Several laps into it I was pretty far back (see skill below) and came around a corner with lots of commotion. A wreck! I swerved and went around…luck (for me). Several more laps on the first corner, more whistles and commotion bodies everywhere. Lucky..again.
Overall luck kept me safe and that was important to me going into this race. Mission accomplished.
Skill
I was worried about skill. I trust my skill, although very rusty for these types for crits, but I do worry about others. To be honest I was scared the first 10 minutes, which pushed me slowly to the back (which in turn probably saved me from the wrecks). I started to get my nerve back remembering how to corner, learning my pedal distance etc. My rear wheel kept bouncing out from under me which was very unnerving but soon recalled some technique I had learned to smooth out my cornering. I felt good about avoiding the wrecks, I’ll take some skill points there. One corner in particular (the last leading into the finish) I was following someone when they suddenly lost control of their rear wheel. They saved it, but the whole event managed to push me wide. As I was heading towards the curb I realized I wasn’t going to make it. I had to jump the curb and ride the edge for a short distance then jump back onto the race. A team mate not racing got a shot (I’ll post soon). More points for skill.
Overall I felt good about my skill but suffered because it took me so long to get my nerve up to speed.
Strength
Hard to say. I was certainly slow early on but that was more fear than strength. I started to get into the groove and had caught a group of riders. At this point I have no idea who’s where or what group this was, I was just happy it was a big group. I though maybe we could catch the lead group as I heard a spectator yell “8 seconds!”. I worked my way up to about 3rd in the this group just when we were pulled. hmmmm? Seemed a bit early to get pulled. As I pulled off it was a while before the moto came around. oh well. For strength I say good, but not tested.
In the end it was 20 minutes of racing. That’s about a dollar per lap. I was bummed it was short but was pleased to be safe and to have gotten that crit “feeling” back.