On Saturday the Halfords ProTour Series came to Dublin, with crit racing on closed streets in the city centre for the first time in 20 years. Despite it being a road race, I’m always up for trying something new, and chance to race in the city centre was too good an opportunity to miss. The course was a very short loop, up Dame street, down towards the river, along the cobbled streets of Temple Bar, and back up the hill. For the ladies it was 30 minutes long and then 5 laps at the end. The night before I had a quick look on the internet for tips and tactics on how best to race a crit – it seemed staying near the front was the best option to avoid bunch crashes and wasting energy on the corners.
50 of us lined up and somehow the supposed neutralised first two laps were ignored and we went straight into fast racing. I got up towards the front of the bunch as a front group split off. It was fast, exciting stuff – pedalling hard, getting around the corner as fast as possible and then sprinting out of it. The cobbles were a killer on skinny road tyres, battering the bike all over the place, but faster was easier. A few times I found myself leading at the front, and at one stage had a bit of a gap without really trying, so put in a bit of effort to test things and see if it was possible to get away – in the end I dropped back in, not confident I could maintain a lead.
Hammering up the hill on Dame Street, turning a tight corner and zooming down the hill towards the river was great fun – crits seem like the way to go for road racing, all the excitement without the boredom in between! The atmosphere was good too, crowds cheering, music playing and a commentator on loudspeakers.
I had no watch, so no idea how long was left, but suddenly they announced 5 laps to go. Ok, legs feeling fine, time for some action. I was watching out for attacks and when Mel Spath came flying past I got up and chased, we got a bit of a lead but holding it didn’t seem possible on the tight course, lapped riders made it hard to attack on the corners and the group got back. 1 lap to go, riding on the front feeling fine, telling myself this is no way as hard as the Epic club races, attack early or wait for the sprint at the end? I waited. Last corner, take it handy and hold position, its make or break time. Final stretch on Dame Street, I started to go, shit, is it the last lap? Nobody sprinting. Split seconds hesitation and not fully committing myself to the final sprint and suddenly 3 riders flew past me and I ended up 4th. Prizes for the top 3, doh! Report and photos here.
I’ll put it down to lack of experience but I definitely could have finished better, the race went perfectly other than that! Really enjoyable though, you could almost call it technical since cornering and descending skills were so important, and when it’s so short it’s all fast and furious stuff.
Afterwards it was nice to enjoy the scorching sun and watch the hour long men’s race, with a load of pro team over from the UK. It was amazing, the speed insane. Garmin-slipstream rider Dan Martin absolutely annihilated everyone – he made it look so easy, leading with a huge gap for more than half the race. There’s a nice video here. More of that in Dublin please!