Colchester Centurion Crit Series Rd 3, 23 Oct 2021

This was my second crit race, the Colchester Centurion crit #3 and my aim this time after being dropped early on last time was to stay in the bunch the whole race. It was a smaller group of 17 riders however we lost 2 during the race to mechanicals from what I heard. There were also less teams with presence so just 1s, 2s and 3s, whereas last time teams had 4/5 so as expected the pace was slower than last time due to the fact the teams weren’t driving the pace. There were still attacks but when they went they were never very threatening and if they were we would drive the pace to bring them back.

I had a proper warm up this time and was a lot less stressed as I had got there with plenty of time and had done some recce laps. My brake did come loose just before we went to the start line but we fixed it quickly. As the flag went and we started I did clip in quickly but my foot slipped out somehow, I managed to recover quickly and sprint on to the pack as they were slowing into the first corner. An attack of two riders went straight away and they stayed away for possibly 3 laps but it was never much of a threat. I kept myself very close to the front the whole time which made life so much easier when it came to taking corners and using less energy. I am guilty of taking turns on the front which I’ll admit was a mistake but I only did it to help bring back riders, if I was pushed to the front and no one was off, I just slowed up and waited for someone else to take over. I felt so much more confident in the race and with my positioning/cornering, my legs felt good and I was shutting down attacks, taking wheels, defending my line and just enjoying being able to actually race.

I hadn’t really thought about how to win the race as I was only hoping to hang on the bunch. With about 5 laps to go the bunch was strung out as we came through the biggest bend going through a technical chicane section into a straight so I attacked not really thinking too much of it just because I wanted to test my legs. I got a big gap very quickly without much effort which I was surprised about and no one followed. I instantly knew though that this was too early to go for the win and I was assuming they’d just leave me out in the wind to let me tire so I went at a steady pace staying away for 2 laps. A break of 4 riders had caught up to me so I managed to get on the back with them and skipped turns trying to recover, but we got caught a lap later. So I’m back in the pack, not recovered from my efforts with 2 laps left. On the last lap the pace suddenly kicked up and I found myself being caught off guard and pushed to the back, the solo rider was caught half way through the lap and I managed to kick off some sort of sprint to pass some riders and get 9th from about 15th.

I was very happy with how it all went and have gained so much confidence from it, also the knowledge that if I properly went for it with about 2/3 laps to go I could win solo so next race that’s my plan!

Chris King