Eric Ragot wins the Cedar Creek Criterium! a report by Eric
I have been a 3 for 11 years (come July) and have never won a Cat 3 race on the road.
Me, Lenny, Jan, William, Gui and Hank William line up for the Cat 3 crit put on by Charlie I. We had just taken 2nd with Greg Donovan in the 4's, and had won the 5's with Kevin, so we needed to keep the momentum going. We also needed to avoid a field sprint because Andrew LaCorte was racing and frankly, he's fast. Its not our game plan anyway to sprint. We'll do it if we have to though...
Eric on his was to a win. Photo from Lenny Katz
Early on, Jan, Lenny, Gui or William ended up in breaks that were chased down. I had a two lap solo move early in the race that hurt, but opened me up. Other than that move, I tended to tail gun it until things got hotter and more exciting, when I'd be in the thick of it. The race started to get a bit more animated with about 10 of 30 laps/miles to go. With I think 8 to go, Jan ended up in a three man break. They got about 20 seconds and stayed there. I kept thinking of how long I wanted to be out in a break if I bridged. Not being in good shape, I didn't want it to be too long, but figured I had about three or four good laps in me because of how I rode two weeks ago when Jan won.
So, I was about to bridge with 5 to go, but the field spread out too much, so I tucked back in and waited another lap. Then as we crested the slight hill coming into 4 to go, I went up to and through the front on the inside, dropped it into the 12 and gave it everything I had. I bridged to the break solo and caught them at the 180 turn. I sat in and rested, took an occasional pull through, but for the most part was determined not to work much. I figured that the non-Kissena's didn't want to lose and would keep working. I also knew that I had a hell of a turn of speed in me if I needed it.
Neither Jan nor I talked to each other about our strategy, we just rode and he must have known I was planning on exploding at the end.
We took the bell, I was third wheel with Jan behind me. Then a bit after the turn, I just attacked. I got a nice gap. Jan sat in and the other two couldn't close the gap. I was really hurting on the home stretch, but knew I could do it. Jan, unsurpirsingly, hammered in for second.
My legs, hurt. Great teammwork. Great results.
Lenny took 7th too.
Thanks, Eric
May 25, 10 | 7:47 am by Kissena #