Thursday Night Crit - July 15th

[Andrew]

With a number of the BPR crew heading to MTB Nationals, I knew it would be a small group of us at the crit, so I went down to support and cheer on those that could make it.

Greg Merrick and Matt raced well in the A group, and I will let Matt  fill in the details on what looked like an exciting race. Matt is showing ongoing improvements with the increased functional work of the Crits adding to his excellent structural work from last winter. I think he will continue to improve over the final 5 weeks of the Crits, and I will look forward to being well-rested to ride as his BPR "partner" next week.

I rode with Peter O'Brien in the B Group, which was his first appearance at these events. I had intended to ride in support of him all night, but made some tactical errors in coaching, that left him riding solo for the final 15 minutes of the race. In my defence, he was looking very strong, and I showed up late, so did not get a full discussion in with him prior to starting. Had I done so, I would have known that he rode Silverstar on Wednesday, had worked hard to ride down to the Crit from Vernon, and was dreadfully under fuelled and dehydrated prior to the start. So, it is not surprising that during the first few accelerations on the 4/5 lap, he was dropped from the small group and could not get back on. I sat up and waited, but he had already given up so much distance by the time I realized he was not in the group, that I could not have helped him. So, I spent the rest of the evening helping some of the other Junior riders in attendance regain the bunch, and kept the group honest on the final lap, by leading it out, but not contesting the sprint.

I felt remarkably well recovered from the week-end, though my HR remained high even at the lower intensities, likely showing some ongoing cardiac fatigue, that I will watch closely as I return to training today.

Peter and I had a long talk after the event, and I will look forward to having him back again to help boost his confidence next week, when he promised he would be better rested, and better prepared. He has the added motivation of wanting to beat the 15 year old girl that was riding VERY strong, and finished in a tight sprint for the finish with 2 of the Critical Speed athletes.

Hope to see Joel and the rest of the crew there next week, assuming full recovery after a great week-end of racing at Nationals.

[Matt]

Thursday was another fun crit!  Unfortunately there weren't many BPR jerseys there – due to lots of races on the weekend, and I hear there were some great results!  It was good to see Peter out.  I'm sure he'll improve on his performance next week. 

As Andrew mentioned, my goals with the crit have been to use them as functional work to increase my high end power, coordination, and respiratory control.  Each week has been a little better.  I have also been trying to reduce any cramping.  Both high tension work, and playing around with sodium intake (both amount, and timing) has helped.
My plan before the race was to pick a Total Restoration Rider's wheel, and try to follow it for most of the race.  However, no one was really interested in working on the front, and the pace was fairly slow, so I took the opportunity to work a little on the front, and try and get into some breaks.  After the last preem, a group of 5 of us got a good gap.  I recovered quickly from the sprint, and started to work, however some of the others hadn't recovered well, and some just didn't want to work, so after a short time we were pulled back.  With about 10 minutes to go, I started cramping in both calves, and quads.  I took an Etab sodium pill, and after 5 minutes the cramping went away - I was amazed at how effective it was, and how fast it worked.  Usually once I feel like I'm cramping, I am doomed!
I recovered well enough to sprint at the end (another first this year), and came 4th.  This is my best result at the crits, and I feel like I have been improving my power, coordination, respiratory control, and finally dealing with cramping a little better.

A fun race, and with some more bodies, we'll get a BPR jersey in 1st! 
Cheers
M