Matrix Challenge, Aged Based State Criterium
Richardson, TX
(4/30/2006)

"I knew weighing 195lbs. was good for something"
Joseph Lafico

The Matrix Challenge was an Age Based crit this past Sunday and I decided to go test the legs at the race. My age category was grouped into the Elite Open race which meant that anyone who wanted to race could. This did not excite me when I first thought about racing it and it did not excite me when I saw quality opponents at the start line. Compliance Depot was there (strong Cat 1-2 team) as well as a few folks from Team Hotel San José and others, including super stud Barry Lee (42 y/o cat 1).

The race started and I made sure that I was near the front. This was only my second Texas Cup race of the season and I knew that I did not have the legs to handle the constant Yo-Yo effect of riding in the back of a blisteringly fast crit peleton. The attacks started to go off within the first couple of laps and they did not stop the whole race. The course was a non technical relatively wide open industrial blvd with a 300 meter hill to the finish. Needless to say the hill wore on me as the race went on. I remember looking down at my watch and it read 31mins into the race. That was not a comforting thought knowing that I was redlined and still had 29 minutes left to race.

The attacks kept coming and every time up that damn hill saw more and more riders drop out. I got gapped several times but always managed to get back on on the down hill section (I knew weighing 195lbs. was good for something). With about 15-20 minutes to go 2 guys went off the front and stayed off. This did not help my situation at all. Team Compliance Depot (5-6 teammates) moved to the front and hammered the pace. The field quickly dwindled. This was pretty funny because I did not realize people were dropping out and actually thought that another break must have gone off the front without me knowing. All I had in sight was the wheel of me....I was hurting badly. So badly in fact that I did not know the lap cards had been posted until 3 laps to to.

With 2 laps to go the Prem bell rang and the pack cranked up. That's right, a prem lap at 2 laps to go. $250 was on the line. The pace went up and then the Bell Lap rang and the pain level soared. I was pleasantly surprised that I was rolling with the finishing pack and thought that I might have a chance at a relatively high placing. Then 2 morons in front of me bailed as dove into the 180 degree turn. I was in disbelief that with 1 lap to go that someone would actually pull off much less two people that were in front of me. So that meant with I had to close a pretty large gap of about 4-5 bike lengths with the pace being pushed by Compliance Depot.

Once I caught back on we were on the hill and pack busted into a sprint. I gave it my best and past a few folks but could not come up with a top 10. I managed to get 15th overall and was the only Cat 3 in the Top 10 out of the 23-29 age group. All the rest were Cat 1-2's. So needless to say it was a great racing experience and gave me a great snapshot of my fitness.