Davis Fourth of July Criterium David Grundman Men Cat 3 1st Place

Dave breaking away from the field at the 4th of July Criterium.

Watching the early races on the 4th of July races gave me a sense of how my race was likely to go, no good places to move up... lots of technical turns, and lots of heat.

There were around 60 or so guys in my field... and I started my race and had what is pretty typical of my races, difficulty clipping in.  I was near the back for the first couple of laps before being able to move up in the start-finish straight-away.  The lines being taken through the corners varied with every lap and there was lots of bumping, bad bike handling (mainly from the juniors!), and lots of cursing.  It was about what I've come to expect from Elite 3's racing.  

I wasn't feeling 100% coming into the race and really wanted to just win the lactate testing prime. I had talked with Derek Byrne before the race and asked him to announce it loudly so I knew when I had to work.  With 5 laps to go Derek called it out.  Instantly, one of the Specialized Racing Juniors attacked on the left side.  The pack surged and I was pretty far back in the group... not an ideal place to win a prime on such a short course.  I went through the first two turns slowly moving my way up in the pack.  I took a very dangerous line through turn 3 but it allowed me to move up to the top 10 in the pack.  Passing through turn four I assumed the junior was off the front, so attacked hard as I passed Chipotle Restaurant.  I blasted through turns 5 and 6 hoping to catch sight of the junior but there wasn't anyone there.

I dug in again and sprinted for the line winning the prime by quite a large margin.  I looked back, noticed a large gap to the pack and decided to keep pushing.  I knew I'd never recover if I sat up and waited for the pack and figured I'd at least make them work.  I don't remember much of the last 4 laps other than the crowd really cheering me on. I really liked having DBC at each corner giving me that extra boost to get through the pain. 

 On the last lap I had a 10 second gap.  I gave it everything I had and tried to sprint to the line.  Someone said I won by 3 seconds... all I was trying to do was stay on my bike.  There were a few crashes on the last lap but luckily I was ahead of all of them.  Dave