The Watermelon Criterium

The watermelon criterium was held on the Rutgers Livingston Campus today. It was my first race of this nature, a .7 mile loop, which we completed 22 times. The third turn was into a 15 mph headwind and a stretch of road with a 3% grade. Where I'm from, we call that a hill.

I’m still at the point where all of this is new to me. Rather than enter with lofty expectations, I’ve decided to set realistic goals, raising the bar higher with each accomplishment.

At the start of the race, four riders took off as their teammates blocked. They were still in sight when I made a move to bridge the gap. I stayed on the front for what seemed like an eternity, which held their lead to 10 seconds, and then I realized that we’d never catch them because their teammates were in the field, blocking and playing keep away.

So, everyone pretty much sat up for the next half hour.

With two laps to go the pace picked up a bit, then the bell rang. I took the inside line on the second turn and started to pick up speed. I took the third turn alone and chugged up the “hill." My only thought was “don’t look back, whatever you do, don’t look back."  I reeled in another rider on the final turn. I was gasping for air and caught her attention...click click...she started to gear up for a sprint, which kinda made me laugh because I was going to let her cross the line ahead of me anyway. She had done a lot of work on the front during the race and, whether it is right or wrong for me to make that call, she deserved 6^th place...I like the number 7 better anyway...guess I still have a lot to learn about bicycle racing.