Race Report for the State Campionship Crit Race
The event was in downtown Owasso, OK. The course was a figure 8 sort of layout, with fairly narrow streets so the sprint runnout was also pretty narrow. Slight uphill in the straight section from corner 4 up to 5, so a slight downhill from corner 8 back to the finish. Weather was great–sunny with a very light north wind.
BG on race morning started in the 160s. As this was the state championship race, I had some extra nerves and despite an increase in basals to 120%, my BGs climbed through the 170s to 193 just prior to the start. Took a short bolus of insulin to help combat that and drank only electrolyte (no carb) replacements with my water throughout the race.
54 racers started. Corner 3 had some water in it which the race organizers feverishly tried to dry out with leaf blowers, but despite these efforts there were multiple slide outs through this (and corner 6-7) that resulted in some broken bikes and a broken collar bone of a fellow competitor.
I had a flat with my front tire on the first lap going into corner 5 and rode it around back to the wheel pit–switched out wheels and was ready to go when the group came around for lap 2.
midway through Cat 4 Crit State Championship, photo courtesy of Rob Ragan
Rode mid-pack (20-30th?) for about 25 minutes. There were two guys off the front, so coming out of corner 4 I surged up to the top 5 and moved to the front through the next lap. Surged coming out of corner 4 again and bridged up to the first two (one of which had been shelled and was coming backwards) coming out of corner 8 headed back to the finish line.
Worked with the leader through the rest of the race to stay away from the chase group, which had split into a group of about 10 riders, a 30 second gap, and then the rest of the remaining field.
With two to go, another racer bridged up to me (riding about 5 seconds behind the leader for the last 3 laps) and then made a move with 1 to go, eventually beating out the race leader on the line by about half a wheel. I followed closely behind to secure a 3rd place finish, with a gap and then the chase group of 10 sprinting for 4th place.
Between nerves and me riding anaerobically when I was off the front with the other racer left me with a finishing BG of 279. A small bolus quickly had me back down to 102 about 35 minutes after the race.
3rd place podium spot
A great race and am looking forward to the road race state championship a few weeks from now!