Albany Criterium Race Report

by Angela

The race course is a short 0.6 mile loop around a school complex. There is a slight incline then a nice downhill. I really like this course because it can be fast on the downhill. The race is formatted a bit different this year. The Cat 4 and Cat 5 races have mentors to assure safety. The mentors also gave us feedback and answered questions right after the race.

I was pretty fatiqued from Livermore Road Race but really wanted to do this race. The main goal for me in this race is to hang on to the group and finish it. I know I didn’t have the legs that day so I will just have to bear with it and get a good work out. My body was tired from lack of food the day before. Right after the Livermore Road Race, I had no appetite. It was hot all night in San Jose and I just couldn’t get a good night sleep. At one point I almost bailed out of this race and maybe just pull out when it got really bad.

I started warming up and drank a couple of electrolyte drinks. I did eat breakfast but had to force it down, I wasn’t hungry at all. I did take some gel which helped.

There was another Bella in the race and I believed we’ve met in Mt Hamilton but wasn’t sure. She was very nice and at the start, I bolted out leading the group then Kimberly told be to hang on to her wheel. I said okay. My spirit was up after that but then after several laps, lagged behind the pack. Several laps went by and the pack split a bit but I was able to chase back. The pack then were all together again. There were a couple of attacks from Metromints and at one point for some reason I was up front pushing the pace. I felt fatigued after that hard work then fell back. Still in the group and trying to move up on the corners, which was un-safe – later getting feedback from one of the mentors which was great! The suggestion was to move up in a straight away. Hydration is also important during the race, which was another stupid decision of mine not to have any drink during the 40 minute criterium. What the hell was I thinking this weekend?

The pace started to pick up and at the last 2 laps, I started to get gapped and fatigued legs just could not keep up with the pace. I saw the group head around the last corner to the finish as I rolled in to the finish.

I learned a lot from the mentors that day and I really enjoyed the race. This weekend was just full of bad decisions on my part. One good decision was to just go ahead and do the race and make the best out of it.

Overall, although the results weren’t as good as I want it to be the weekend was filled with eye-opening learning experiences from other racers, mentors and my coach. The fun part of racing is to get better through experiences in the races weekend after weekend. There is never a race where I don’t learn anything.